Excited!

I'm off to London after work tomorrow for the "secret" Melanie C gig and I'm pretty excited cos it's been over a year since I've seen her perform in the UK.

A lot of people here seem to think she has stopped doing music but she's had plenty of chart success in Europe and the DVD recording tomorrow will be another way of rewarding her loyal fans across Europe.



Also looking forward to September because I've got two weeks holiday and a million options which means I'll be doing a "robmacca" special and doing something spontaneous - so watch out world.................

I love Music!

I love music!






Lots of great singles out in the UK charts and on the music channels at the moment, I'm loving it!
It was good to finally get out on Saturday and shake my ass on the dance floor, ok so I fell over and grazed my arm, and yes I was very drunk so probably danced like a fool - but I had fun. Music makes me feel good, so long may it continue..........

Postman suspended for anti-junk mail advice

"A postman who advised people how to stop junk mail being delivered to their
home could lose his job after bosses suspended him for misconduct.
Roger
Annies composed and circulated a leaflet about the Royal Mail's opt-out clause
for unsolicited mail during his rounds in Barry, south Wales." - BBC NEWS

Postman's Side:

The postie wrote and delivered a leaflet giving customers details of how they could opt out of getting junk mail saying:

"If you complete the slip below and send it to the Royal Mail delivery office, you should not get any of the above-mentioned unwanted advertising."

Royal Mail's Side:

A spokesman said Royal Mail delivered less than a quarter of the UK's unaddressed mail - officially known as "Door to Door items" - and that "if we do not deliver this mail then rival companies will."

He added: "Royal Mail's future depends on competing effectively in all parts of the market and that includes unaddressed mail, a service which is used by a great many firms and people, whose businesses depend on it."

My Side:

As a postie I hate delivering leaflets as well as junk mail, but as Royal Mail point out - it's an important part of the business and if we don't deliver it someone else will. Without the leaflets/junk mail thousands of jobs would be lost because we'd lose a lot of business.

I can see why the postie sent the leaflet to his customers - he wants less work!

But it's just WRONG to turn away custom - imagine if the shop worker told you to shop at another supermarket or the car dealer told you to buy your car from the competitor?

Royal Mail would be right to sack this guy for trying to turn business away.

Cost of Living

You might remember an earlier Blog post about the number of new people who have chosen to live in the UK recently. I know for many non-UK people, it seems like a dream to come and live here. I love the UK but it's worth considering the COST of living here.....................

• I earn LESS now than I did 3 years ago because overtime has dried up.
• The consumer group Energywatch estimates that in the past three years, average household energy prices have doubled from £500 or so to almost £1,000.
• Council Tax in 2006-7 increased by 4.5% for the average house to £1,268 per year.
• Petrol has gone up from about 75 pence a litre in March 2004 to almost £1 today, a rise of some 33%.
• Mortgages: Back in 1996, a typical mortgage was for about £60,000. Today, that sum is closer to £150,000. Back in 1996, the income to house price ratio was 2.85. This means a house would cost 2.85 times an average income. Today, it is about six times average income.
• Food Prices in June 2006 rose by 2.5%, while unprocessed food prices have risen by 3.5% in the three months to June this year alone.
• University Fees can be up to a maximum of £3,000 a year, depending on the university, the course and where in the UK they study.

Still look so good living in the UK?

Melanie C Gig

Melanie C is doing a "secret" gig in London on Thursday (31st) as reported in my last Blog posting. It's going to be at a secret location and it is being recorded for a new DVD to be released later in the year.

Some UK people have scoffed, thinking that Ms Chisholm had stopped doing music. It's just as well all that is printed in the papers isn't true. Melanie has been enjoying success in other European countries instead, including a number 1 in Germany.

Good news for me is - I'm going to the gig. Thanks to my Melly friends Ben and Ryan who made sure I'd be able to see my favourite female artist. I also got a winning email on Friday which totally confirmed to me I should be there, even if I have work a few hours later............

Spice Girls News Update

Victoria may front her own TV show:

Victoria Beckham could soon be starring in her own TV fashion show in the US.
It was "almost certain" that Posh would start work on her own reality series in the States, according to top TV producer - and Victoria's long-time associate - Simon Fuller.
The show would follow the same format as America's Next Top Model and see Victoria promote her own fashion business on air.
TV executive Fuller used to manage the Spice Girls and is responsible for hit talent shows Pop Idol and American Idol.
"It will be more serious than a reality show but will still be very entertaining because Victoria is so funny," he told Broadcast magazine.

Emma Bunton Sitcom:

Simon also said his company 19 Entertainment was working on a sitcom for fellow Spice Girl Emma Bunton.
"Emma wants to get into TV," he said. "She went to drama school and it's in her blood. We're going to give her a shot."

Melanie B to marry Eddie Murphy:

EDDIE Murphy is preparing to propose to his former Spice Girls girlfriend Melanie Brown, according to US press reports.The pair began dating three months ago and reportedly immediately fell madly in love.

A source told the American publication US Weekly, "They are looking for the right ring. They
are already living together at Eddie's house (in Beverly Hills)."

Brown, 31, has a daughter from a previous marriage; Murphy has five children with ex-wife Nicole, whom he divorced in April, and a son from a previous relationship.
The couple enjoy staying at home watching movies, ordering food and playing with their kids.

Geri Halliwell's Singing Lessons:

Geri Halliwell may just shock us all yet – she is Metro can reveal taking singing lessons. The former Ginger Spice reveals, 'I need to expand my range and did have lessons before but slipped up. I now intend to sing live at some stage.'

Bluebell Madonna, daughter of former Spice Girls singer Geri Halliwell came 4th in a list of Ten Funniest Celebrity Names published this week.

Melanie C Live DVD:

Fresh from her success in Europe, Melanie C will be performing at a secret gig in London next Friday. Fans have been able to enter a competition on her website and will be treated to a rare UK performance by former Sporty Spice. The DVD is set for release later this year and will be the first release in the UK for Melanie, who has been busy promoting Beautiful Intentions album across Europe.
Melanie is currently working hard on a new studio album set for release late Spring 2007.

Customer Service

I did do a post the other day but managed to delete it so here goes again.............

Good Customer Service:

I took my little Rover 25 for it's service as it approaches it's 4th birthday. The guy who did it worked for Rover 22 years, before they went bankrupt - so at least he knew what he was doing.

Well - not only did he explain everything to me, he took it for its MOT and washed my car. The good news was - it was even cheaper than when I got it done about 21 months ago.

It's so refreshing to get really GOOD customer service.

I tipped and then bought a thank you card and tipped again cos I was so impressed - and I'm normally tight!

Bad Customer Service:

Life has a funny way of balancing things out, and by the end of the day my shopping trip to Morrisons supermarket had done just that.

The guy that served me at the till didn't greet or offer help or pack my frozen items, plus his attitude was like he clearly didn't want to be there. On top of that he let my jars roll down the checkout but didn't pass the shopping I couldn't reach.

Sounds petty but manners cost nothing.

Did You Know?

MIGRATION TO UK SINCE 2004:
Accession EU countries: 427,000 (about 600,000 including self-employed)
Dependants: 36,000
Non-EU settlement: 318,330
Granted asylum: 123,000
Non-EU work permits: 261,235, plus 87,000 dependants

Total: 1,425,565

*Source: Home Office

Naomi Awards 2006

Naomi Awards 2006:

Taking their name from Naomi Campbell's short-lived music career, the Naomi Awards name and shame "those artists who have made truly awful music". Here are this years winners (or losers depending how you view it!):



Worst British Female Solo Artist: Lisa Scott-Lee
Worst British Single: Lisa Scott-Lee
Worst Pop Act: Lisa Scott-Lee

Worst International Album: Westlife
Worst International Group: Westlife
Outstandling Bad Contibution To Music: Westlife

Worst British Album: Steve Brookstein
Worst British Male Solo Artist: Lee Ryan
Worst International Female Solo Artist : Jessica Simpson
Worst Live Act: Babyshambles
Worst Attept At Rock: Son of Dork
Worst International Male Solo Artist: Jack Johnson
Worst International Breakthrough Artist : Pussycat Dolls

Brit Awards 2007 - To Be Shown Live!

Brit Awards 2007 is to be shown LIVE for the first time in almost 20 years. The last time it was shown live was when Sam Fox and Mike Fleetwood famously made the Brit Awards look crap!

But Best Pop,Best Rock and Best Urban awards are all being axed by the organisers.

Showing the Awards live is a massive risk as the previous years have shown. Who can forget Robbie offering to fight Liam from Oasis? Then the Spice Girls, Melanie C saying to Oasis "Come and have a go if you think your hard enough".

John Prescott (MP) had water thrown over him and Michael Jackson was almost attacked by an unhappy Jarvis Cocker (Pulp). On top of that we had the year the Brit Awards BANNED alcohol, leaving Davina McCall to just insult the audience instead.

So expect a great show at London's Earls Court on 14 February, as it will be shown on ITV.

I can't wait!

1. Michael Jackson gets attacked

2. Spice Girls have a go!

3. Robbie wants a fight.

Robmacca's Bath Time

I've been enjoying my long weekend off from work and as a bonus I have had the house to myself.

So I thought it was time to do some new pictures, and since the sun has been hiding most of the month - I had to be a bit more inventive and do some alternative pictures.

Bless the mobile - it managed not to break when robmacca snapped away.......

Scissor Sisters -"I Don't Feel Like Dancing" VIDEO

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30,000 Music Video Codes | MySpace Layouts

Coventry 3rd Cheapest University

Coventry is the third most cost-effective place to study in the UK, according to a new report.
Low living costs and ample opportunities for part-time work mean that students at the West Midlands university are financially better off in terms of earnings and expenditure than their counterparts at most other universities across Britain, the Royal Bank of Scotland’s annual Student Living Index found.

Coventry has moved up from 7th to 3rd as Coventry offers the best returns for part-time student work, with an average weekly income of £132.

The Student Living Index in full:

1 Cardiff (6) 14 Canterbury
2 Leeds (11) 15 Brighton (20)
3 Coventry (7) 16 Birmingham (3)

4 St Andrews (24) 17 York (17)
5 Manchester (4) 18 Leicester (10)
6 Belfast (21) 19 Newcastle (22)
7 Edinburgh (19) 20 Bath
8 London (1) 21 Nottingham (14)
9 Liverpool (2) 22 Sheffield (5)
10 Bristol (23) 23 Oxford (12)
11 Dundee (9) 24 Aberdeen (15)
12 Southampton (8) 25 Durham (16)
13 Glasgow (13) 26 Cambridge (18)

*Rankings according to the 2005 Student Living Index are indicated in brackets after the name of each university town. No bracket denotes the first time this town has been included in the study. (Source - RBS)

As the chart shows - it's another good reason to come to Coventry!

Topless Britain Disaster!

Well, Blog lovers - you may remember last month I was talking about the British heat wave (see: http://robmacca.blogspot.com/2006/07/british-heatwave.html ) . I was hoping to have a nation of topless people during August but the weather has been a complete disaster - it's been more like late autumn than summer.
So far this month I have not had a chance to go out in the sun, cos there has hardly been any!
It's a disaster I tell you, my tan is fading and before we know it summer will be over.

I want it

I need it

Oh Pants!

Oh Pants indeed!

I was working today in my postie shorts as usual but could have died when the elastic went in my underpants. This meant for the whole mornin g while I was in the office sorting then out delivering in a posh part of Coventry - My pants were slipping down!

Thankfully the middle section of my shorts stopped them being shown to the public but at a push you could have seen up my shorts if you were in the right position.

Oh perish the thought!

I have friction burns on my willy........................

Madonna's 48th Birthday

Madonna is almost 48 years old and a certain club in London will be holding a special Madonna night, where the DJ's will be playing 48 Madonna tracks during the night to celebrate the Queen of Pop.
Any excuse for me to "borrow" their fantastic changing faces of Madonna picture and post it on my Blog..............

4 Club and Country

Now here's another brillient idea to spring from Coventry.

It's a website set up by three life long Coventry City fans with a simple concept.

They produce football shirts - half are Coventry City and half are England. They have also branched out into football shirts.


Clever or what?! I love it.




Visit the website and see for yourself:

http://4clubandcountry.co.uk/index.php

Spice Girls - Viva Forever - VIDEO

VIVA FOREVER (Spice Girls)

Video Code provided by VideoCodeZone.Com

British Teenagers Sex Survey

Key Findings 16-24 year olds:
Virginity: 30% lost it before age of consent, 4% before 14, 4% had not lost their virginity by 25
Sexual partners: 21% had one, a 33% two to four, 16% five to seven, 8% eight to 10, and 18% over 10
OrientationMen: 87% heterosexual, 6% homosexual, 4% experimented, 3% bisexual

Women: 82% heterosexual, 11% experimented, 5% bisexual, 2% homosexual

Nearly a third of young people had sex before the age of consent.Nearly a third of 16 to 24-year-olds lost their virginity below the age of consent, a survey has suggested.
The BBC Radio 1 poll also suggested 43% of young people had had at least five sexual partners with one in five having more than 10.
Over half - 57% - claimed to have had a one-night stand.
But many of the youngsters, who made up two-thirds of the 29,623 who responded to the online poll, said they did not always use condoms with new partners.
Some 38% of young people do not always use a condom with a new partner, with being too drunk cited as one of the most common reasons.

Alcohol was also strongly linked to a young person's first experience of sex, with 37% saying they had had a drink before having sex for the first time.
The survey also revealed deficiencies in young people's sex education.
One in 10 claimed to have had no sex education at school, while three quarters said they only learned the basics.
Many showed a lack of awareness about contraception failure, with 43% not knowing it was possible to get pregnant if a condom is not used correctly and 35% unaware that the contraceptive pill can also fail.

Asked what their biggest worry was regarding sex, 41% said pregnancy, 24% said HIV and 22% sexually transmitted infections.
However, the pressure young people feel to have sex appears to be declining with 23% of women under 18 saying they felt pressured, compared to 33% of those 32 and over.
Just 4% of the young people quizzed said they had not lost their virginity, the same number as had had sex before 14. Some 9% had had sex at 14 and 17% at 15.
Respondents in Wales and south west England tended to lose their virginity earlier, while Londoners and people from Northern Ireland lost it later than the average.

Men aged 16 to 34 were more likely to describe themselves as homosexual - 6% compared to 2% of women.
But 11% of women said they had experimented, compared to 4% of men.

*Source: www.news.bbc.co.uk

The Lynx Towel Dance

http://www.lynxboost.com

It's Sunday.............. I'm allowed to get distracted and surf the net aimlessly...............

Advert of the Month - Lynx Towel Man

You may have seen this advert on your TV screens, and now it's my advert of the month!
The advert has a young guy in just a towel after using the Lynx shower product, then going out on a night out, as seen in the picture above.

Now you can view the advert for yourself to see if you can see why I like it so much!

Click here to view the advert:

http://www.visit4info.com/preview-flash.cfm?vm=0&type=2&adid=35060

I'm a Plonker!

I'm such a plonker............................

I spent the whole day thinking I was having someone stay over from Finland, so I vaccumed the house from top to bottom and changed the bed linen, got myself off to bed at a reasonable time, made no plans for tonight so I could entertain. Then.....................

This evening I checked the email and it's NEXT Saturday I'm being a host!

Well, all is not lost - I'm off to the pub with a good friend of mine to get drunk :-)

English Teens Don't Use Condoms!

A new study is revealing that sexually active teens are not using condoms correctly and risking unwanted pregnancies or infections.
About half of the 1,400 students surveyed at 21 schools across England had lost their virginity. 373 of those used protection on the last time they had sex, and six percent applied it after initial penetration.
About 322 of the 714 diary entries described sexual activity and encounters where a condom has not been used. Professor Roger Ingham, whose findings are published online by the journal of Sexually Transmitted Infections, said it was worrying so many young people don't use condoms correctly.
He said: "Imperfect condom use practices are found to be fairly prevalent among young people in England with one in three diary respondents reporting at least one experience of non-optimal use over a period of up to six months.
"If we are to see a reduction in sexually transmitted infection prevalence it is essential young people understand the importance of using condoms consistently and correctly and are also equipped with the skills and knowledge to do so."

Now, when I first saw the headline, I thought "how stupid, even an idiot knows how to put a condom on" but when you read the story as reported on:
http://news.worldfitness.ca/news/081006/TeensNotUsingCondomsProperly.php
It becomes clearer that Teens in England just don't use condoms. Which is rather worrying when you think of what can happen when a condom is not used.

Just in case your unsure how to put a condom on correctly visit this website:

http://www.feelconfident.co.uk/condoms/how_to_put_on_a_condom.htm


Play a really funny condom game here: http://www.feelconfident.co.uk/condoms/game.htm

Wank-a-thon Update

Remember I posted a topic a story about Britain's first Wank-a-thon the other week ( http://robmacca.blogspot.com/2006/07/britains-first-wank-thon.html )
Well, it happened a few days ago and here is a press story from www.24dash.com :

More than 150 people pleasured themselves for charity in the UK's first-ever 'Masturbate-a-thon' in London.

Twenty-four-year-old Daniel Gardner, from Bournemouth, set a new European record by performing for a staggering seven-and-a-half hours.

One woman claimed she had 49 orgasms in Saturday's controversial event which raised money for the Terrence Higgins Trust and sexual reproductive health agency Marie Stopes International.

Participants from all over the UK queued outside a converted photographic studio in Clerkenwell, central London, to take part.
Channel 4's cameras filmed the day for a series of 'provocative and mischievous' programmes, which will include the 'Masturbate-a-thon'.

Event organiser Tony Kerridge, from Marie Stopes International, said the unique day had been a big success, with 154 people attending.
He said: "There have been six similar events held in America and the most they attracted to one event was 125.

"It was a very well natured event and there were no incidents or contraventions of the rules – it was about solo masturbation in a communal space.

"It was a pretty bizarre but amazing day. It was about raising awareness and dispelling the shame and taboos that persist around masturbation and creating safer sex strategies."

He said: "We had all sexualities – gay, straight, bi, transgender, men and women. It was dominated by men – 85% were men and we also had women – one of the whom was aged 70!

"It was a self defining group of people who were going to do something like this and I have never seen people take their clothes off so quickly."

Mr Kerridge said Daniel Gardner, a heterosexual, had achieved the European record.
Charity 'Masturbate-a-thons' have taken place in San Francisco but this was the first event of its kind in Europe.

Mr Kerridge said: "Daniel was openly filmed by Channel 4 so he will be featured in the documentary. I think Daniel broke the stereotypes and he was also the longest performer."

Mr Kerridge added: "We wanted to get the public talking about masturbation as one of several alternatives to penetrative sex.

"We took about £1,500 people on the door but we won't know for a while how much money has been raised through the sponsorship of each participant."

European Athletic Championships - pictures

1.Ukraine's Dmytro Glushchenko races Briton Marlon Devonish who triumphs in the men's 200m heats with a season best.
2.Briton Rhys Williams wins his 400m hurdles semi-final.
3.Great Britain's Greg Rutherford picks up silver with his last jump.
4.Dwain Chambers, back after a two-year ban for drug abuse, eases to victory in his first-round heat of the men's 100m.

It wouldn't be summer without men running around a stadium in nothing more than lycra and their pride showing off too the world.
Here are four of the best pictures I found on the BBC website! Enjoy.