A Brighton Boy Blogs

Just a quick public information notice: Belkin makes the most unreliable, poorly designed, unmitigated rubbish in the world. It’s true. I have owned several items by Belkin, none of which has ever worked properly, and have always given them the benefit of the doubt. But the Belkin Vision N1 router is the last Belkin device I shall ever own. It crashes all the time and I can’t keep a wireless connection for more than 20 minutes or so before it overheats and freezes. They can have it back through their office windows for all I care. I should sue for the amount of lost time and stress Belkin has caused me. None of their products work properly, or at least work for long. The USB hubs regularly need to be unplugged from the mains and reconnected just so they recognise the devices plugged into them. If it says Belkin, just don’t go there. Please. Perhaps then Belkin will actually take notice and produce something decent for once. Companies like this just don’t deserve to exist.

The BBC has long been known for its excellent science & nature programmes. I grew up on them; some thirty years ago David Attenborough himself introduced me to Darwinian evolution through the process of Natural Selection in his seminal series “Life on Earth”. Yes, that was back in 1979 when I was just 12 years old. They have always been the ordinary person’s way into even the most complex science.

Now the BBC’s “South Pacific”, being shown back-to-back with Dr Alice Roberts’ “The Incredible Human Journey”, continue the tradition. Unfortunately in the last decade the rise of right-wing Christian fundamentalism and its insidious invention of “Intelligent Design” has begun to erode all the good work which has sought to enlighten and educate ordinary people. Read more…

Having witnessed the Police presence in Brighton today for the “Smash EDO” protest, which led me to have to drive a 10-mile diversion to deliver my girlfriend to work, I read with interest the statement issued by the Brighton & Hove City Commander, Chief Supt Graham Bartlett, as follows: Read more…

Yes, a new title for the blog… Same old rubbish to read though. Enjoy.

Well well. Barely a day goes past when I don’t get a call from some cocky arse (generally from Manchester) who tells me that they’re calling me on behalf of Google and that they can get me to the top the search results. Read more…

Incredible. This morning (about half an hour ago actually) I witnessed an Adur Council refuse collection vehicle being driven into my childrens’ school at we arrived. The driver was self-righteously waving away parents dropping their kids off at school as he drove the wrong way up a narrow road which everyone voluntarily treats as a one-way street, and tried to maneuvre the lorry into the narrow driveway. I stayed clear, allowing him to pass.

A few minutes later, Read more…

Sometimes I get great service from a company and I’ll write about it. When I find serious fault with a company, I tend to report it on here too. If that company demonstrably puts things right, I tend to report that as well. Alas, that doesn’t happen very often. But recently I had a call from Mr John Collins, Managing Director of Kafevend Group Ltd who claimed that my previous report on Kafevend – an incident involving criminal fraud on the part of Kafevend’s sales staff – had been fully investigated and dealt with. So I allowed Mr Collins to come and tell me the story.

Read more…

I love taking my shoes off at the end of a busy day. It’s the first thing I do when visiting my friends’ houses. But through the airport security, when I’m already being made to carry my outdoor coat, having removed everything from my pockets and decanted everything including drinking water and each of my many bodily fluids (blood, urine, sweat, semen and both vitreous and aqueous humours) into 100ml bottles sealed inside a transparent ziplock bag (or even worse, to dispose of them, never to be seen again), removing my boots is really the last straw. Read more…

0800 GMT: Yay it’s Christmas Day. I’m alone because my girlfriend is working today, and this year my sons are with their mum for Christmas day. I am going to make it a really good one. Read more…

My first memories of pub food was chicken-in-a-basket at a pub near Clayton. That was 1976, food-in-a-basket was all the rage, and my dad furiously sent ours back because the chicken drumsticks were not merely raw, but still slightly frozen in the middle. Thankfully things have largely improved since then, but as you’ll see if you’ve read my report on the Brewers Fayre/Neville Crest & Gun Incident, not all pub food is worth eating, or indeed paying for.

I had all but given up on pub food… but I yearned for a decent roast that I didn’t have to cook, and served in a nice garden on a summer’s day where my kids would be welcome and the food would be worth eating and my one pint would be the best I’d had since the previous week, and everything would be suitably idyllic. But alas, this particular holy grail was elusive.

I’d passed by The Cock, and even photographed their slightly comedic sign by the main A26 embraced by the model I was photographing that day; but never given it a second thought. One Sunday, however, Read more…