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Nationwide: April 2012
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Sunday, April 22, 2012. Milk Bar Blues : Momofuku Trouble. I don't generally write here about food so much, that's for elsewhere. I should be writing about being stuck on the train out of London this week for two hours after a lightning strike (ie thunderbolt from the sky type lightning, not industrial action) because I actually wrote a letter of complaint about some of the stuff that happened (not a letter to God about the lightning, just stupid rail staff). The one that's opened in midtown and therefor...
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Nationwide: October 2011
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Friday, October 14, 2011. The Microsoft Windows Computer Company Accident Helpline. The phone is telling me that I am being called from India, and when I pick it up there is lots of crackle and hissing. A very polite Indian gentleman speaks. "Hello Mr Johnstone - (and that is not me) - it is the Microsoft Windows Computer Company here and according to our records your computer is at risk from a virus because you have not had your computer serviced by us. What is the number of your computer please? The co...
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Nationwide: February 2014
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Sunday, February 23, 2014. Like all the posts on this 'ere blog - mostly dead now I'm afraid - it's all a bit personal, a bit spleen-venting, a bit informative sometimes. It involves me sitting down at the computer and spewing out a few words on a subject that may be of no interest to anyone. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. Of course I've singled out a particularly stupid comment. But there are hundreds. Thousands. Every day now, wild and wooly opinions which fill the same white space as...In the pr...
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Nationwide: May 2011
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Thursday, May 26, 2011. Is there anything else I can do for you today sir? Last year we went onto one of those car insurance policy websites which are the subject of a mad UK TV advertising war. I can't remember if it had a meerkat or a mad opera singer but it worked. It allowed us to see various quotes and we opted for the cheapest, thus saving several hundred pounds. Since then, we get regular calls from the old. Time to say at the end "Is there anything else I can do for you today? No Do we have time ...
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Nationwide: January 2012
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012. It's competition time again and - leaping over the BAFTAS for a moment - the Oscar list is out today so Nationwide is going to predict who will get what and not change it between now and tears-on-stage day. Here we go. Best actress in a supporting role. Octavia Spencer, The Help. She stole the film. Best actor in a supporting role. My Week with Marilyn. Max von Sydow,. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Best actress in a leading role. Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs. Best foreign l...
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Nationwide: December 2013
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Monday, December 30, 2013. 8220;I was going to dump him because he was creepy. He did the creepiest thing. Guess what he did.”. 8220;Left anonymous love notes in your tampon box? Slept with a small Mrs Rabbit that smelt of cellars and contained a spoonful of his mother’s ashes? How do you think of stuff like that? No, he was worse: he wrote reviews on TripAdvisor.”. 8220;God, that’s really loathsome.”. 8220;What sort of man, indeed? Credit : Thanks to The Sunday Times. Links to this post.
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Nationwide: November 2011
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Wednesday, November 02, 2011. If there's ever been a better phrase to sum up the dark side of the internet, then please feel free to tell me. I can't claim credit for making this one up, it came my way in a comments column in the Guardian after a review of a particularly telling documentary about Tripadvisor. By nutters - there's plenty to choose from - as it's veered off the rails. So rather than just bringing a few 'characters' (the secret of success for 'Come Dine With Me') they simply looked in t...
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Nationwide: April 2010
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Sunday, April 18, 2010. Due to Volcanic Ash, London, particularly the South West, is bliss at the moment. Sunshine, brunch and dinner outdoors and best of all - silence in the skies and picturesque sunsets. If Boris's Thames Estuary airport doesn't get a few thousand extra supporters this week, from Housnlow to Twickenham, I'm a monkey's uncle. But there are still dark corners of London where danger lurks. Why don't you jaas fuck off? The beggar is shouting. I should point out that this particular be...
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Nationwide: May 2010
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Sunday, May 30, 2010. Dennis Hopper R.I.P. Dennis Hopper died yesterday and I'm sad. They say you should never meet your heroes for fear of disappointment and while that can be true, with Hopper it wasn't. Like most people I found him via Easy Rider and thought he was brilliant. His inability to keep it real on and off screen just endeared him further to me but meant he became increasingly difficult to insure or bond to make movies. I talked us through it and we set off to look at the paintings, the came...
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Nationwide: September 2014
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Thursday, September 11, 2014. Today is a special day. It began ordinarily enough, with a little orange juice and emailing, then some meetings and coffee, then lunch and a few drinks in The French. This is September 11, what appears to be the last day of Britain's Indian Summer, and, um, oh that's right. it's 9/11. I regard 9/11 as the most important turning point in my life. I've written about it here before. I wish more British people remembered 9/11. In the last few days an avalanche of information has...
