How the Council of Eejits killed retail in Eejitville by introducing the Klampers Mob...

Source: universityobserver.netsoc.com via Stella on Pinterest

Imagine a fictional town called Eejitville, governed by a Council of Eejits who keep congratulating themselves everyday, for having built themselves fancy new offices when the times were good. Now, imagine that the times were not so good anymore.. (Not that you have to imagine very hard..) Not to worry! The Council of Eejits can always feel secure, not being held accountable for anything at all, ever!

So, they may have (totally fucked up and) sold their town parking to the Klampers Mob, killing local retail as people would rather drive off and shop elsewhere, where parking is free.. Who cares?! (Except maybe all those local retailers who have to shut down their businesses, and all those local people who'd WANT to shop local, but not when parking costs an arm and a leg, and being a few seconds late from your paid parking expiration time, will result in having your car clamped.. But who cares about them, right?!) Oh, and they might never be able to get rid of the Klampers Mob, or they might get sued for breach of contract, and that might just be a shit storm big enough to cause serious trouble, even for the Council of Eejits... No, no, no.. We can't have that..

Well, maybe the Council of Eejits should do something nice, to make people forget all about that nasty parking fiasco ("Oops, we really fucked up there, but if we do THIS, maybe no one will notice?...") Oh! Oh! Like, let's have some pretty flower baskets! And let's help the local businesses by putting up big "Shop Local" banners! ... The thing is, everyone still knows that the Council of Eejits fucked up and killed retail in Eejitville.

Once you start paying the mob, you can never get rid of them.

And now, some not entirely unrelated links;
Parking fines and vehicle clamping
Clamping practices exposed
NCPS - Nationwide Controlled Parking Systems
Parkopedia - Bray, Co. Wicklow
Bray Local Notices (see under Holy Redeemer)
Bray Town Council Shop Local Campaign

Riddle me this...

Above, a preview screenshot of my blog. As you can see, the Twitter yoke works as it's supposed to work.


Here's a screenshot of the normal blog view - the very same Twitter yoke code, yet now it's only a link to my tweets. (It's the same in all browsers.)

I've noticed that before, but I've forgotten to blog about it.. I don't get it!

Dunnes Stores Cornelscourt sold me a faulty CD - and now it's in Finland

One of my Christmas presents to my parents, was the lovely Rod Stewart Christmas CD, "Merry Christmas, Baby", which I'd been listening to on Spotify, and which I just knew they would like. (You can see it in the photo, above.)

Well, it turned out to be a very welcome present, and my mam had even thought of buying it herself. However.. The brand new CD that had never been out of the box, had a deep scratch on it, and therefore didn't play properly!

I am less than impressed with Dunnes Stores Cornelscourt, which is where I bought the CD - here's the receipt;


I am going to complain about this, and I do hope that Dunnes Stores will settle this without me having to actually ask my parents to send the CD back - although, they will, if it's necessary, but in such case, I would be expecting to get the postage fee covered by Dunnes as well. After all, they sold me a faulty CD, and I already paid myself sick to send the big Christmas parcel to Finland (see the An Post receipt in the above photo as well).

I would prefer to get a new copy of the same CD. Of course, it will be too late as my parents didn't get to enjoy it during this past Christmas period, but at least they could listen to it, come next Christmas. Alternatively, I would at least want my money back, but then I'd have to try and find this CD somewhere else, which could be tricky as the season is now over, so yes, I'd really want another copy - and this time I'd actually make sure that it works, before sending it to Finland again!

Larger version of the receipts can be seen here, and my contact info is here, should a Dunnes Stores representative wish to get in touch through this blog entry. (I will get in touch, anyway..)

Psst; They did send me a new CD, later on, which worked fine.

Cheapo wig pics from September 2011

 
I've been flickr'ising some old pics that had virtually piled up on the laptop.. Here I was having fun with the cheap wig! (I wish I could FIND my wigs..)

 

Working on the Muzakir pages

The Muzakir pages (in English / suomeksi) have become quite messy, with lots of updates here and there.. I am doing a quick update today, just to get the most recent info out there, but with striking out stuff that is no longer relevant, etc., it's becoming such a mess that I'm going to need to do a clean-up on the pages, soon.

I'm just mentioning this now, because all that outdated info is still there, so if anyone wants to save it for whatever reason, you'd better do it right now. I might just make a regular blog entry with all the older updates I'm going to remove from that page, though, because I would like to still have the stuff available somewhere, just to keep it all out in the open. But lots of it has to be removed from the pages as they are just too messy now. I also need to update the printable pages with current info.

Briefly: The operation was a success, Muzakir's recovery seems good so far, and we are still keeping the collection going, because the family needs to pay back a private interest free loan of €4000. (Yes, only €4000! It was originally €4600, but the person who granted the loan and wishes to remain anonymous, very generously decided to want only €4000 of it back.) So, although we got our Christmas miracle, and Muzakir had his operation, I am still hoping that people would make donations to help the family pay back this loan. They simply can't manage it without our help.

I haven't been able to post a newer list of donations received so far, because Mala is understandably spending all her time in hospital with Muzakir, and therefore hasn't been able to access her email or go to the bank. Obviously, Muzakir's recovery and wellbeing are the most important issues here, so I don't want to rush Mala about anything else. More updates will be posted, eventually!

Breezy - As we discussed over text messages, this morning, there was a class 2 cyclone in force in Mauritius;

Animals vs. people

Source: iwastesomuchtime.com via Stella on Pinterest

"My first instinct when I see an animal is to say hello... My first instinct when I see a person is to avoid eye contact and hope it goes away."

Yes, I'm a bit like that!

Cat angel finger puppet from Jen

I hadn't even told Jen about Ginga's death yet, so when I received her Christmas card with the cat angel finger puppet she had made for me, I couldn't believe the timing! Such a moving gift.. (I buried Ginga with the finger puppet angel I bought in Italy, back in 2005..)

Here's a photo of Jen, myself, and Maaria, in late September 2005, just before Jen returned to Canada.

 


Jen had also made this global warming Santa card - I love it =)

BOBO treasure - more vintage comics

I got SIX more Finnish BOBO comics, before Christmas, but I didn't want to read them in a rush (while getting ready for Christmas, keeping up to date with Muzakir collection, etc.), so I only read them around the new year. These are from late 70's and early 80's =)

 

 

Ready for 2013

I like to use these "mini post-its" to mark the months, in my Moleskines. This is my pocket Moleskine, which should be small enough to always fit in the handbag. I have a large black (soft cover) Moleskine for diary purposes.

Virtual fireworks for 2013

* * Happy New Year 2013 * *