Scheveningen
I took these pictures just as the sun went down at Scheveningen in Holland.
Trains and Coffee
My journey on Friday from Stansted Airport to Winchester took four trains, but went very smoothly. It avoided London termini and was much easier.
The Stansted Express took me to Tottenham Hale and then it was the Victoria Line to Vauxhall. I used to do this a lot to see a client, who sadly has now passed on. It was then a quick hop to Clapham Junction and then a fast train to Winchester.
All trains were clean and I had two cups of coffee en route. The one on the Stansted Express was £1.85 and the other on the Winchester Train was £1.40. But the Stansted one was an individual filter, so the value was about right. They were both good.
I should also say that when I took the train to Southampton Airport, I bought the wrong ticket from the machine. I felt that some jobsworth might make me buy a new ticket, but he just charged me 40 pence for the difference.
Who says service has died?
Winchester
These are a few pictures I took in Winchester on Friday.
I must try and find the pictures I took of Winchester and the cathedral, when I first visited the city at the age of 10.
I’ve Been Very Lucky
I’ve just won not one but three prizes in this lottery, that I didn’t even enter. That must be some sort of record.
EURO-PW LOTTERY v7.0,
www.europw.com
POSTBUS 636-5930 AM
TERNEUZEN, HOLLAND.RE:OFFICIAL PRIZE AWARD NOTICE.
DEAR WINNER,
THIS IS TO INFORM YOU THAT YOU HAVE WON A PRIZE MONEY OF ONE MILLION EURO (1,000,000)FOR THIS MONTH (NOVEMBER 2009)EURO-PW LOTTERY ONLINE PROMOTION.
ALL PARTICIPANTS FOR THIS ONLINE VERSION WERE SELECTED RANDOMLY FROM THE WORLD WIDE WEB, THROUGH AN ELECTRONIC BALLOTING SYSTEM (E.B.S.)AND EXTRACTED FROM OVER 100M SECURED WEBSITES WORLDWIDE.
ONLY FIVE WINNERS EMERGE EVERY MONTH THROUGH ELECTRONIC BALLOTING SYSTEM (E.B.S.),AND YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WAS SELECTED AND ATTACHED TO THE WINNING NUMBER BELOW WE CONGRATULATE YOU FOR BEING ONE OF THE EURO-PW v7.0 WINNER.
PLEASE CONTACT OUR APPROVED AGENT FOR YOUR REGION WITH YOUR WINNING NUMBER AND YOUR FILLED CLAIMS VERIFICATION FORM BELOW.
WINNING NUMBER: EPWL/11/17/18/25/08
EURO-PW LOTTERY v7.0.
CLAIMS VERIFICATION FORM.
FULL NAMES .
ADDRESS .
NATIONALITY .
COUNTRY .
TEL/FAX .
AGE/SEX .
MARITAL STATUS .
OCCUPATION .PAYMENT OPTION
1. COURIER DELIVERY OF CERTIFIED WINNING CHEQUE (…..) 2. TRANSFER OF PRIZE MONEY VIA ONLINE BANK TRANSFER (…..)TICK AN OPTION WHICH SUITS YOU BEST FOR THE REMITTANCE OF YOUR PRIZE MONEY TO YOU.
CONGRATULATIONS FROM ALL MEMBERS OF STAFF OF EURO-PW LOTTERY.
NINA T. FRIJTERS (Mrs.)
DIRECTOR; CLAIMS DEPARTMENT.
TEL/FAX: +31 (0) 84 740 8620
E-MAIL: europwdesk2@hotmail.comFROM: Venancio Massingue (Mrs.)
NOTE: ALL CORRESPONDENCES SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO europwdesk2@hotmail.com
In fact my luck is so astounding as I have won three out of the five prizes on offer. How many millions to one is that?
Sadly, it’s fraud. If you reply the obnly winner with be that crook, Venancio Massingue.
Clapham Junction
I’ve rarely caught a train from this station, but the Train Timetable site said that by travelling via Tottenham Hale, Vauxhall and Clapham Junction was the quickest way to get through London. I was actually travelling from Stansted Airport to Winchester.
Note the Hot Ribena. I used to like that, but now because it is made from wheat glucose, it gives me the runs.
One of the problems of being a coeliac. But the EU says that wheat glucose is fine for me, so it must be OK!
It bloody well isn’t!
Valencia
Just watched Murray win in Valencia.
It was our last holiday. It rained and rained until the Monday, when we had to take the flight back to Stansted.
I wrote this soon after she died about Valencia.
We had not intended to go on holiday again in 2007, especially as we had already booked a fly-drive holiday in Thailand for February 2008. But my wife suffered the worst professional nightmare a barrister can! A case settled unexpectedly and she had a hole in her diary. So she felt that a weekend away before winter set in would not be a bad idea.
So why did we go to Valencia?
I searched easyJet and Ryanair for what was available at a sensible price from Stansted in three or four days time.
Valencia was either first or second for value and convenience and there appeared to be a good five star hotel called Las Arenas on the beach. The value for that was good too.
So we booked and flew out at lunchtime on Friday. The hotel was stunning, friendly, extremely comfortable and very much worth the hundred and fifty pounds a night we were paying.
But you couldn’t say that for the weather! It rained cats, dogs and hippopotami until the Monday morning, which was the first day my wife was able to have one of her beloved swims.
Valencia is an architectural gem, with buildings ranging from the classical and religious to the ultra modern.
Valencia is unusual in that after catastrophic floods in the 1950s, they diverted the River Turia around the city and created a linear park that runs from the city centre to the coast.
It would be interesting to know what fuss would be created if a city these days decided to divert a river as big as the Turia.
We ate very well in Valencia.
The most amazing and perhaps one of the best restaurants we ever visited was Ca Sento, which according to the guides is one of the best in Spain, let along Valencia. I can’t remember what I ate, but it was a spectacular gluten-free meal without any compromise to taste.
But we also ate in a tiny tapas bar behind the cathedral, where we sheltered from the rain. Superb red wine was a couple of euro a glass, food was tasty and wholesome, and the atmosphere was best described as Spanish and local. They knew about gluten too!
And then there was the incident in another fine seafood restaurant in the city centre. My wife was wearing the red tee-shirt dress with the stars, she’d bought in Nice. When we had finished, she needed to pay a visit and climbed a spiral staircase at the side of the dining room to the toilets upstairs. As she came down, I walked over to meet her and I heard a fat English lady at my side say something like, “Who does she think she is in a dress like that? She must be nearly fifty!”
Not a bad compliment for someone of fifty-nine.
I shall always remember Valencia. But I may never go back!
Perhaps I will and perhaps I won’t.
Hamleys Forget to Renew Domain Name
It can happen to anybody, but it happened to Hamleys.
Perhaps they should use a domain name company, like Low Cost Names, who are very persistent, when you don’t register a name. I’ve dropped a few in my time and know how they behave. It may be annoying, but you do what you need to.
St. James’s Park
Newcastle United play at St. James’s Park in Newcastle. Or they did? But now they play at sportsdirect.com@St. James’s Park, as the stadium has been rebranded.
My first thought when I heard this was a very practical one. In the days of fast sports news on a Saturday afternoon, when the call is something like, “Over to Alan at Old Trafford!”, would they really say “Over to Alan at sportsdirect.com@St. James’s Park”? No! They’d either use St. James’s Park or just Newcastle.
So Mike Ashley won’t be getting many bangs for his bug.
But he has spawned a lot of humour in the press. Here’s the piece from The Times.
It puzzles me how a man, who obviously has talent to produce a multi-billion pound business, can make such a simple mistake.
Sun in the Morning
It is a beautiful morning here today, even if other parts of my life are not so good. So I walked the stud and took a few pictures.
The horse in the overcoat is Vague Shot, who won the Hunt Cup at Royal Ascot in 1987.
House of Parliament?
This short and sweet spam came twice.
Hello this is Dr Roger Berry from the British house of parliament, how are you doing today? this email is to remind you of your CONTRACT PAYMENT SUM/ INHERITANCE FUNDS of $5.2 million US dollars, your money is now available for payment. Your attention is needed urgently get back to me immediately.
Dr Roger Berry
Note that it came from the British House of Parliament. Did he mean Commons or Lords, as there is no House of Parliament, but Houses of Parliament? Dr. Roger ought to learn to type and punctuate as well.
I needed a good laugh and this crook made me chuckle.
