This is a weird post to write given I've been on here for about a year or so. It was an experiment

I'm moving back to wordpress, for a number of reasons: 

• discovery that my name does not make a good blog URL
• posterous isn't as versatile as I thought and although the bookmarklet is nice, there are things missing
• I thought tumblr would work as a blog, but it doesn't. 
• I need a nice WYSIWIG editor that handles video and images nicely, not through HTML editing

With that in mind, and the fact that people need a name to hold onto that is uniquely me & all that identity stuff people bang on about, my new (old) blog is called a wanky planner blog. The 'it is what it is' approach. Might as well be honest with myself. 

No thinking rubbish, no pretentiousness implied, pretty much whatever is on my mind and has a link to something else and touches on what I do in my job. 

I've imported the articles I had on here but they need some editing/formatting because they look rather odd. 

I want to love this Lucozade advert for the vibes.... ...but the vibes already existed in another DJ Fresh track:

Last week I had a first world problem that involved crunching my earphones ( Apple standard issue) and not being able to listen to music at work, which is unfortunate where I'm sat. It dawned on me that I need new ones, so I should instantly head to Amazon (where I usually source most of my stuff from). Not one minute did I think "yeah, bet some high street shops will have some emergency headphones for me" and that's because my choice of high street shop within walking distance of work includes HMV (mostly fashion-driven Skullcandy stuff), the Apple store and a Staples that has stuff that would look more at home in a call centre or to be used with Skype. Essentially, there was so little real choice, it made more sense to  just put up with it till I ordered something online with next day delivery. Not order to store or any rubbish like that. 

A sidenote, we're told and occasionally reminded that it's all fish pedicures and salons on the high street now:

The rapidly changing face of Britain's high streets shows an army of hairdressers and beauticians on the march but the number of newsagents, butchers and independent fashion stores in marked decline as they struggle to compete with the onslaught from supermarkets and larger chains. A third of independent high street stores are now cafes, pubs, restaurants and takeaways rather than traditional retailers. In the past two years the number of independent clothes shops has declined to 5% of high street businesses, while they made up 6% of stores in 2008. Hairdressers increased from 4% to 5% of the high street over the same period and beauty salons from 2% to 3%. 

Guardian

I rarely questioned it up until now but the headphones lit up a lightbulb - you tend to notice two things happening:

• shops closing down and no one taking up the retail space - all boarded up for good;
• shops that close, then some other pop-up thing comes along, then closes, then another one but there's never anything on for long enough;

That actually gives a pattern for what kind of businesses thrive and what kind don't (like that article about salons and fish pedicures) and surely there's something to be said about how online shopping changes or will change a few things in our minds. Basically, shops are wonderful if you need something and need it badly. Pronto. Problem is, big, well-stocked stores are out of reach and include the cost of petrol (which most people find negligible, but isn't) and for some (me included) it makes little to no sense to first inquire of stock via phone and only then visit the place when I could just make do until my online order arrives and wait it out - if it's not urgent and important like a broken washing machine flooding my house.

So essentially online shopping makes you more likely to introduce this little bit of foresight into your life: to buy some stuff a few days/weeks/months before you need it (or as much as you can anyway). The good part is that you get free delivery, free returns, you have plenty of time to try stuff and return it if it's not satisfactory (it won't be needed straight away) and more often than not cheaper than the high street (what that does to the brain is a different issue altogether). It changes the way businesses let people accept parcels at work - most don't - or allow people to stay at home while working from there so they can take deliveries, and last but not least how those who can't be at home through any means can get hold of their stuff (Like this clever invention).

It seems to me that shops that open and then close (or just close down indefinitely) are those that assume people don't think in advance about their purchases and aim to bring too many products that will satisfy breadth of offering but don't sell because of high mark-up prices and don't generate enough store traffic. That says to me high street shops should look far different - offer something that makes me wish I chose the experience rather than clicking a button. Which I'm very apt at doing while stuffing myself with ice cream, rather than standing and sweating in a changing room. Much more pleasant IMO

This summer has started out pretty nicely and it's wedding season (rather than social season at the races or with tennis) for me. The first one was in beautiful Stratford and the next will see me up in Glasgow and then down again in Warwickshire. 

It raised the issue of how much we actually pay for weddings and events all year round (about £100 per event)- so as a form of silent protest I wore a dress I had bought but never took out of the closet (mostly because it's been too cold and it's no coincidence that Manchester is usually 4-5 degrees colder than the rest of the country). I couldn't be bothered with shoes, so I didn't buy any new ones. And it was all good. They were all none the wiser.

The hotel was very pretty indeed but it was mostly filled with golf enthusiasts at the time.

Reflecting on these photos (I didn't take many), I think I'm quite happy that my phone is now my only camera. It's not too shabby. I thought it might not take these lavender plants and cave in but alas. It smelled as amazing as it looks. Oh and the cake was fantastic too (so were the people, but I don't really post photos of people without their consent on my blog). I think I'm ready for wedding number two in Scotland now (with more kilts and no fights hopefully)

The silly season is the period lasting for a few summer months typified by the emergence of frivolous news stories in the media. This term was known by the end of the 19th century and listed in the second edition of Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable and remains in use at the start of the 21st century. The fifteenth edition of Brewer’s expands on the second, defining the silly season as “the part of the year when Parliament and the Law Courts are not sitting (about August and September)”.

Typically, the latter half of the summer is slow in terms of newsworthy events. Newspapers as their primary means of income rely on advertisements, which rely on readers seeing them, but historically newspaper readership drops off during this time when, for instance, in the United Kingdom, Parliament takes its summer recess, so that parliamentary debates and Prime Minister’s Questions, which generate much news coverage, do not happen. Similar recesses are typical of legislative bodies elsewhere, and there is also a decline of other news because vacations are common during that period. To retain (and attract) subscribers, newspapers would print attention-grabbing headlines and articles to boost sales, often to do with minor moral panics or child abductions.

Silly Season

The 19th century argument is good to bring forward to those who say that we've been getting more stupid with the years. Bet they couldn't escape the gossip back then either. 

www.marriedtothesea.com

"The problem is actually that today’s ideology of choice-led capitalism, the idea that everyone is a maker of his or her life, which goes very much the reality of the social situation, actually pacifies people and makes us constantly turning criticism towards ourselves instead of organizing ourselves and making a critique of the society we live in."