This Easter weekend"s been really great with lots of stuff going on in the town and I was in the thick of it. First we resurrected our old band after nearly six months and renamed it "Creepey Cool" - (misspelling is deliberate) a much better name that The Fezz which you may remember from an earlier post). Anyway, we practised for the first time in the lead singer"s flat - the first time we"ve been able to do so as his new neighbours love music unlike his old one. This was in preparation for a gig at the I,Q. in Boston which is also a first for us. We were meant to"ave played there several times before but the gigs fell through.
On Saturday, although it rained we managed to find cover and busked outside near the market stalls for a couple of hours and even flogged a T shirt with the new band logo. We also played a new song that the lead singer had just written which went down really well. The true test of course was yet to come at the I.Q. (Indian Queen) on the Sunday night. I"ll come back to that later.
I nearly stayed in that Sat night but thought "what the hell" after getting a call from another friend and went out to the Axe & Cleaver ( another well known local pub & live music venue) He was telling me that a barman there got his ear bit off the weekend before by a crazy Irish bloke and had to go to the hospital in Nottingham to get it stitched back on. Apparently, he was trying to stop this bloke from causing trouble in the pub. I actually saw him that night but couldn"t tell whether the hospital succeeded in doing so because he always wears a cloth around his head.
We then ended up in "The moon under the Water' a Wetherspoon pub and we met a girl & her auntie who I"d known for a few years. I remember us telling them that we"d been to the local strip club 2 weeks before & the girl said to me "next time you go just ask for me and I"ll give you a free one." I was amazed, I didn"t know that she worked there but I"ll definitely remember that.
I then went to the I.Q. and met yet another friend. There weren"t many people there although there was a band playing, the punters were obviously saving their pennies for the Sunday event. We then went to the White Heart hotel bar - not the sort of place I usually go to - I ordered my first drink which was one pound fifty. I gave the barman a tenner but mistakenly he gave me more than that back. I thought "what has he given me?" I got back to the table and without thinking blurted it out to my friend. I said that I wanted to return it because I could not work out how much more they"d given me. The friend, who is a born again christian said you must do or else it would be dishonest.. I realised that he"d given me a ten instead of a five pound note and returned the money to the bar.
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Saturday, 18 April 2009
Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Trials & tribulations -- What a weekend cont:
The next day, (Sunday) I went out for a meal at the new Italian restaurant where the Trustee Savings Bank used to be -- very fresh & modern inside . It was actually my brother"s partner Clare who took us. I had spaghetti, bacon bits sprinkled with Parmesan cheese with a cappachino which was very nice, except I didn"t have enough.
The timing was good because the I.Q"s live mini music festivle was starting at 4pm.which meant that I had a couple of hours to kill. I went to the IQ to check to se what equipment they had, had a pint and then went to the lead singer"s flat to run through the songs. At that point we had no idea how long or even what time we"d be playing so we got down to the I.Q at 4pm. The first bands were pretty good but very loud and the place was soon packed to capacity -- I stood outside most of the time because of this.
The bands played various rock covers vintage & modern. not bad considering it was only supposed to be a jamming night and the crowd were pretty wild compared to a usual Saturday night. We were beginning to wonder how we"d fare with the crowd in there -- plus Dave, our lead guitarist hadn"t turned up. We were also getting a bit concerned if we"d even get to play. We needn"t have worried though, cause by 9pm most of the bands had played and we set up and a very experienced drummer, lead guitarist & bass player joined us. We played several songs including "Walk on the Wild Side" as well as our own songs and it went down a storm -- even though the other players hadn"t played with us before. The crowd went crazy, dancing & jumping about -- one girl started fiddling with the knobs on my keyboard. There were one or two things which went wrong, two of the lead singer"s guitar strings broke and my keyboard power lead played up a bit but none of this affected us or the crowd. Overall an amazing night.
The timing was good because the I.Q"s live mini music festivle was starting at 4pm.which meant that I had a couple of hours to kill. I went to the IQ to check to se what equipment they had, had a pint and then went to the lead singer"s flat to run through the songs. At that point we had no idea how long or even what time we"d be playing so we got down to the I.Q at 4pm. The first bands were pretty good but very loud and the place was soon packed to capacity -- I stood outside most of the time because of this.
The bands played various rock covers vintage & modern. not bad considering it was only supposed to be a jamming night and the crowd were pretty wild compared to a usual Saturday night. We were beginning to wonder how we"d fare with the crowd in there -- plus Dave, our lead guitarist hadn"t turned up. We were also getting a bit concerned if we"d even get to play. We needn"t have worried though, cause by 9pm most of the bands had played and we set up and a very experienced drummer, lead guitarist & bass player joined us. We played several songs including "Walk on the Wild Side" as well as our own songs and it went down a storm -- even though the other players hadn"t played with us before. The crowd went crazy, dancing & jumping about -- one girl started fiddling with the knobs on my keyboard. There were one or two things which went wrong, two of the lead singer"s guitar strings broke and my keyboard power lead played up a bit but none of this affected us or the crowd. Overall an amazing night.
Sunday, 29 March 2009
Are you stuck in a rut?
Like me, many of you probably know what it"s like to be stuck in a rut. Maybe you"ve been made redundant in this present financial crisis and can"t find new employment. If you go for the jobs in your old sector and you're not having much luck, then it"s time to change -- to list the things that you"re good at. The list may include skills which you"ve only ever used in your spare time or you may have had an earlier career which you would like to get back into again. This can actually be pretty difficult because that career may have changed with the times -- with newer technology or extra skills for instance.
This is where new training can help. I don"t mean full time training courses (unless they"re only for a few weeks.) but part time distance learning with tutor support. You can then still continue in your present job or be claiming unemployment benefit and not be penalised. People with disabilities can get special help. although in my area most employers won"t consider them unless they are a large company and they have to fill their quotas. There isn"t actually a law anymore to force them to do that -- Mrs Thatcher in her wisdom got rid of that back in the eighties.
Next problem, once you do some training then you won"t have any (recent) experience and don"t get considered what can you do?
One solution could be freelance work if it"s the kind of industry where you can do that. Problem is freelance work can be sporadic so you would need another means of income, especially in the beginning. -- more on this later:
This is where new training can help. I don"t mean full time training courses (unless they"re only for a few weeks.) but part time distance learning with tutor support. You can then still continue in your present job or be claiming unemployment benefit and not be penalised. People with disabilities can get special help. although in my area most employers won"t consider them unless they are a large company and they have to fill their quotas. There isn"t actually a law anymore to force them to do that -- Mrs Thatcher in her wisdom got rid of that back in the eighties.
Next problem, once you do some training then you won"t have any (recent) experience and don"t get considered what can you do?
One solution could be freelance work if it"s the kind of industry where you can do that. Problem is freelance work can be sporadic so you would need another means of income, especially in the beginning. -- more on this later:
Monday, 16 February 2009
Life Beyond ebay - Is there a viable alternative auction site?
NOTE: For readers who have come directly from
EzineArticles go strait to the post below this one.
For years if you wanted to sell your unwanted stuff online, ebay was the only viable option. For a long time this was OK It was a fun site to use with a great community. Problem was , it got too big and lost sight of it"s customers needs, (which often happens when companies get too corporate). For the buyers, the bargains weren"t so much bargains anymore. This was due to sellers having to pay ever increasing fees, feedback changes & being forced to use Paypal.-- not to mention the scam buyers as well as sellers - a fact that paypal (when used in conjunction with ebay) doesn"t seem to recognise This is surely a recipe for decline. Predictably, the final quarter of 2008 saw a big drop in revenue for them. Whether this is due to the recesion, sellers starting their own web sites or even listing on other auction sites, I suspect it"s a bit of all three.
One site which is doing very well is Bonanzle started in June 2008 from Seattle, in the US. Initially it served the USA only but I understand that it will (or already is) available to international buyers and sellers. The best items to list Bonanzle says is not your shiny new and highly mass-produced stuff, Amazon caters for that area very well. It"s everything else and the rarer stuff, collectibles etc Does it get a lot of traffic? Well according to Bonanzle, in Sept 2008 they had over 10.000 items listed. Now (feb 2009) they have over 1.200.000 listed - more than a ten fold increase. This suggests that they must be getting a lot of buyers as well as sellers. This could be the answer to the prayers to of many sellers and even buyers.
Bonanzle at first glance looks very simple and in use it"s as simple as it looks. You can choose to show items you"ve searched for as listed or gallery which will be very familiar to those who"ve used ebay. You can use Paypal if you like but you aren"t forced to. They are also planning to add Google cart. You can also pay by postal order, check etc.as well as cash. How much does it cost? For Paypal, money order or Google checkout the fees are as follows:
First of all, any cash-based transaction is and will continue to be free on Bonanzle. For transactions on Bonanzle that are closed through other forms of payment, such as Paypal, Money Order, and Google Checkout, here is their pricing - which, they guarantee will not increase through to 2010.
Price to list items for sale FREE. which includes four photos -- now beat that ebay.
You can visit Bonanzle Here
EzineArticles go strait to the post below this one.
For years if you wanted to sell your unwanted stuff online, ebay was the only viable option. For a long time this was OK It was a fun site to use with a great community. Problem was , it got too big and lost sight of it"s customers needs, (which often happens when companies get too corporate). For the buyers, the bargains weren"t so much bargains anymore. This was due to sellers having to pay ever increasing fees, feedback changes & being forced to use Paypal.-- not to mention the scam buyers as well as sellers - a fact that paypal (when used in conjunction with ebay) doesn"t seem to recognise This is surely a recipe for decline. Predictably, the final quarter of 2008 saw a big drop in revenue for them. Whether this is due to the recesion, sellers starting their own web sites or even listing on other auction sites, I suspect it"s a bit of all three.
One site which is doing very well is Bonanzle started in June 2008 from Seattle, in the US. Initially it served the USA only but I understand that it will (or already is) available to international buyers and sellers. The best items to list Bonanzle says is not your shiny new and highly mass-produced stuff, Amazon caters for that area very well. It"s everything else and the rarer stuff, collectibles etc Does it get a lot of traffic? Well according to Bonanzle, in Sept 2008 they had over 10.000 items listed. Now (feb 2009) they have over 1.200.000 listed - more than a ten fold increase. This suggests that they must be getting a lot of buyers as well as sellers. This could be the answer to the prayers to of many sellers and even buyers.
Bonanzle at first glance looks very simple and in use it"s as simple as it looks. You can choose to show items you"ve searched for as listed or gallery which will be very familiar to those who"ve used ebay. You can use Paypal if you like but you aren"t forced to. They are also planning to add Google cart. You can also pay by postal order, check etc.as well as cash. How much does it cost? For Paypal, money order or Google checkout the fees are as follows:
First of all, any cash-based transaction is and will continue to be free on Bonanzle. For transactions on Bonanzle that are closed through other forms of payment, such as Paypal, Money Order, and Google Checkout, here is their pricing - which, they guarantee will not increase through to 2010.
Price to list items for sale FREE. which includes four photos -- now beat that ebay.
You can visit Bonanzle Here
Sunday, 15 February 2009
Fed up with eBay fees? Longing for a better way to sell?
If you're a seller on ebay and fed up with the ever rising fees & feedback changes, there are quite a few other websites you can list on. Some don"t have listing fees - a big plus when you are selling expensive items. No requirement to use Paypal - which is great for sellers who have suffered from scam buyers as Paypal used with e"bay always favours the buyers. Here are 3 of the biggest rivals although there are many others too numerous to mention here.
ebid
e"bay may dominate the online auction market, but eBid is one of the bigger sites hot on it"s heels.
A lot of sellers are now listing items on both sites, and some have even migrated from eBay all together because eBid fees are lower.
Free listing: It costs nothing to list items on eBid.
Sellers can subscribe to ebid in two different ways
You can subscribe to eBid as a basic seller for free. You"re then charged a final value fee of 3% of the sale price of each item you sell.
This approach usually makes financial sense if you only plan to sell occasionally.
In seller+ option, you pay a subscription fee for a set period of time (7 days = £1.99, 30 days = £6.99 etc. You can even subscribe for life for say #99.99 seller+ also has additional use of various site features.
Seller+ subscribers also don"t pay the 3% final value fee. This may be a good choice for you if you think you're going to sell regularly.
Photos: It's usually free to list a photo with your item, although if you use the gallery' format you'll have to pay a final value fee of 2% of the item's selling price & it"s only available to seller+ users.
Payment system: eBid's preferred secure payment partner is Pp pay (several other methods of payment, including PayPal, are also available).
As with eBay, you'll have to pay the relevant Pp pay/PayPal transaction fees.
Downside: Although there"re plenty of items listed, there doesn"t seem to be a many buyers as sellers but you can list for as long as you like. (until the item sells of course) I also personally found ebid a bit fiddly to use.
It"s definitely worth looking at & ebid may just be the wake-up call that ebay needs - and the fees are much lower.
Amazon Marketplace
Amazon Marketplace has fast become one of eBay's biggest online rivals. you can buy and sell new, used and refurbished items, which is on the same page that Amazon displays the item new.
It's not an auction site though - sellers must set the final price of each listed item
When using Amazon Marketplace, you don't pay a listing fee. So, if your item doesn't sell, you don't lose any cash.
Plus, listings generally last 60 days (most items on eBay can only be listed for a maximum of ten days before you have to pay to re list them).
You pay a completion fee of £0.86; and a sale closing fee - which is 17.25% of the sales price & 11.5% when selling electronic and photo items.
Amazon also sets the postage costs, not you. It takes a fee from the buyer, keeps an ‘administration fee' for itself, and passes the rest on to you as ‘postage credit'.
This can work out as more or less than the actual cost of postage and packaging, so sellers need to accommodate this in their product price.
Photos: You can't normally use your own photos next to your item, because Amazon uses single detail pages on the site, where the product details already exist.
With certain products, you can provide a photo link - but they still won't appear next to your advert (they'll be made generally available to anyone browsing in that category).
Amazon operates a secure payment system of its own (the equivalent of PayPal). this service is free for all sellers to use.
Downside: What you can list is somewhat constrained by the choices of category available. For example, there's no section for ‘vehicles', so selling a car or motorbike would prove difficult.
And although you can list an item Amazon doesn't have in its catalogue - you'll have to create your own page for it first. It also seems expensive compared with other sites but for higher value items which take longer to sell it is definitely a good be
Gumtree
Gumtree was started in 2000 as a local London classified ads and community site. It now covers 60 cities in six countries, with millions of people listing everything from flat rentals, jobs and dating ads to CDs, furniture and motors.
It costs nothing to sell an item on Gumtree. You just type out the ad, attach a photo (if you want), and post in the relevant category.
What's the catch? Just stay safe when buying or selling stuff in this way. Face-to-face payment - and item handover - is recommended to avoid getting ripped off (either as a buyer or a seller).
For example, Gumtree offers no protection if you post an item and then don't see the cash. For this reason, selling locally is probably the best way forward.
Worrying developments? In 2005, Gumtree was bought by eBay. Its fee-free status, thankfully, remained unaffected.
However, Gumtree is now introducing a facility called ‘Featured Ads'. These are ads that appear in a special section at the top of the listings pages for either three or seven days.
And guess what? You're charged a fee to use this service. The price depends on how long you'd like your ad to appear in this format, and which category it's in.
Of course, there's nothing suspicious about this. The good positioning will maybe mean that more people will read and reply to your ad.
But let's just hope the free listing option remains firmly in place, too.
ebid
e"bay may dominate the online auction market, but eBid is one of the bigger sites hot on it"s heels.
A lot of sellers are now listing items on both sites, and some have even migrated from eBay all together because eBid fees are lower.
Free listing: It costs nothing to list items on eBid.
Sellers can subscribe to ebid in two different ways
You can subscribe to eBid as a basic seller for free. You"re then charged a final value fee of 3% of the sale price of each item you sell.
This approach usually makes financial sense if you only plan to sell occasionally.
In seller+ option, you pay a subscription fee for a set period of time (7 days = £1.99, 30 days = £6.99 etc. You can even subscribe for life for say #99.99 seller+ also has additional use of various site features.
Seller+ subscribers also don"t pay the 3% final value fee. This may be a good choice for you if you think you're going to sell regularly.
Photos: It's usually free to list a photo with your item, although if you use the gallery' format you'll have to pay a final value fee of 2% of the item's selling price & it"s only available to seller+ users.
Payment system: eBid's preferred secure payment partner is Pp pay (several other methods of payment, including PayPal, are also available).
As with eBay, you'll have to pay the relevant Pp pay/PayPal transaction fees.
Downside: Although there"re plenty of items listed, there doesn"t seem to be a many buyers as sellers but you can list for as long as you like. (until the item sells of course) I also personally found ebid a bit fiddly to use.
It"s definitely worth looking at & ebid may just be the wake-up call that ebay needs - and the fees are much lower.
Amazon Marketplace
Amazon Marketplace has fast become one of eBay's biggest online rivals. you can buy and sell new, used and refurbished items, which is on the same page that Amazon displays the item new.
It's not an auction site though - sellers must set the final price of each listed item
When using Amazon Marketplace, you don't pay a listing fee. So, if your item doesn't sell, you don't lose any cash.
Plus, listings generally last 60 days (most items on eBay can only be listed for a maximum of ten days before you have to pay to re list them).
You pay a completion fee of £0.86; and a sale closing fee - which is 17.25% of the sales price & 11.5% when selling electronic and photo items.
Amazon also sets the postage costs, not you. It takes a fee from the buyer, keeps an ‘administration fee' for itself, and passes the rest on to you as ‘postage credit'.
This can work out as more or less than the actual cost of postage and packaging, so sellers need to accommodate this in their product price.
Photos: You can't normally use your own photos next to your item, because Amazon uses single detail pages on the site, where the product details already exist.
With certain products, you can provide a photo link - but they still won't appear next to your advert (they'll be made generally available to anyone browsing in that category).
Amazon operates a secure payment system of its own (the equivalent of PayPal). this service is free for all sellers to use.
Downside: What you can list is somewhat constrained by the choices of category available. For example, there's no section for ‘vehicles', so selling a car or motorbike would prove difficult.
And although you can list an item Amazon doesn't have in its catalogue - you'll have to create your own page for it first. It also seems expensive compared with other sites but for higher value items which take longer to sell it is definitely a good be
Gumtree
Gumtree was started in 2000 as a local London classified ads and community site. It now covers 60 cities in six countries, with millions of people listing everything from flat rentals, jobs and dating ads to CDs, furniture and motors.
It costs nothing to sell an item on Gumtree. You just type out the ad, attach a photo (if you want), and post in the relevant category.
What's the catch? Just stay safe when buying or selling stuff in this way. Face-to-face payment - and item handover - is recommended to avoid getting ripped off (either as a buyer or a seller).
For example, Gumtree offers no protection if you post an item and then don't see the cash. For this reason, selling locally is probably the best way forward.
Worrying developments? In 2005, Gumtree was bought by eBay. Its fee-free status, thankfully, remained unaffected.
However, Gumtree is now introducing a facility called ‘Featured Ads'. These are ads that appear in a special section at the top of the listings pages for either three or seven days.
And guess what? You're charged a fee to use this service. The price depends on how long you'd like your ad to appear in this format, and which category it's in.
Of course, there's nothing suspicious about this. The good positioning will maybe mean that more people will read and reply to your ad.
But let's just hope the free listing option remains firmly in place, too.
Friday, 6 February 2009
Trials & tribulations - Updates of previous stories.
Wow! what a cold & snowy week it"s been. We"ve had snow Sun/Mon and now yesterday and today. Never lasts long though (apart from masses of compacted snow which refuses to budge) which is just as well because I need to take the dog out soon - after I"ve finished writing this in fact. It"s been the worst down the south-east of England with the London buses being cancelled for the first time in their history. Obviously, we haven"t had it that bad here.
Anyway, do you remember that in one of my earlier posts I said that I had a nasty fall? Well the solicitors rang back some weeks later to say it was only a 50-50 chance of winning the case so they weren"t pursuing it after all - yet another setback. There has been some good news though, When I traveled to Dudley in early Jan for my course, I remember being disappointed that I didn"t meet my friend who just happens to live there. Well I haven"t mentioned this before but I"d met this new friend online over 2 months earlier and after exchanging loads of emails, I told her that I was going to Dudley soon and could we meet sometime? She agreed, but to cut a long story short she didn"t reply in time to arrange it before I set off there. I assumed she was busy, what with her divorce going through etc. When I got home she still hadn"t replied, so I sent an email no reply. It wasn"t like her as she was always quick to reply. Anyway, I forgot about it and started to email someone else - and guess what! - I looked in my inbox last night and her name was at the top of the list. I checked to see if the inbox had gone to the next page, like it often did when my Internet Exp. was playing up - but it was new alright. I nervously opened it and it read "sorry I couldn"t reply in all that time because I had a virus on my computer. Speak to you soon" That"s amazing I had a virus on mine as well. Also, when she first contacted me she didn"t know that I was going to Dudley for my course. Two amazing coincidences - or just fate? I don"t know but there"s a good chance that we"ll meet next time I go down there.
Anyway, do you remember that in one of my earlier posts I said that I had a nasty fall? Well the solicitors rang back some weeks later to say it was only a 50-50 chance of winning the case so they weren"t pursuing it after all - yet another setback. There has been some good news though, When I traveled to Dudley in early Jan for my course, I remember being disappointed that I didn"t meet my friend who just happens to live there. Well I haven"t mentioned this before but I"d met this new friend online over 2 months earlier and after exchanging loads of emails, I told her that I was going to Dudley soon and could we meet sometime? She agreed, but to cut a long story short she didn"t reply in time to arrange it before I set off there. I assumed she was busy, what with her divorce going through etc. When I got home she still hadn"t replied, so I sent an email no reply. It wasn"t like her as she was always quick to reply. Anyway, I forgot about it and started to email someone else - and guess what! - I looked in my inbox last night and her name was at the top of the list. I checked to see if the inbox had gone to the next page, like it often did when my Internet Exp. was playing up - but it was new alright. I nervously opened it and it read "sorry I couldn"t reply in all that time because I had a virus on my computer. Speak to you soon" That"s amazing I had a virus on mine as well. Also, when she first contacted me she didn"t know that I was going to Dudley for my course. Two amazing coincidences - or just fate? I don"t know but there"s a good chance that we"ll meet next time I go down there.
Thursday, 5 February 2009
Trials & tribulations - Does Your Computer Ever Slow You Down?
I"ve had loads of problems with computers lately. First we had a power cut while the computer was on which was a few weeks ago, only a small one mind (less than 1 sec) It came back on but the flat monitor screen had gone funny, the screen had a blank space on the left-hand side & it had stretched out to the right so only half the screen was showing. The picture was also fuzzy. I rang my brother & he reckoned it was the monitor so I changed it for an old bulky style one and hey presto - it worked, Anyway, it was OK for about a week when I unintentionally downloaded something - cant remember what. My security firewall warned me but it was too late - I"d downloaded spy ware, a virus, Trojan horses etc (I dont think I would want to ride one, ha ha!) It was bad cause it wasn"t even my PC that I was using. As a result, I couldn"t access the Internet, the McKee virus killer that was installed was out of date so although it scanned the system & picked up all the malicious software etc, It couldn"t eradicate them. so I jaunted down to PC World and bought Spy Doctor. The ticket said just under a fiver but it turned out to be nearly half price, great! so I got it home & it got rid of most of the malicious stuff apart from one virus. It still wouldn"t log on the Internet so I gave up and used my laptop instead. I had quite a few probs. with that as well. First Internet explorer kept crashing, so I updated it to the very latest update, Internet explorer 8 beta. Because of my ignorance, I didn"t know what "beta" meant - I thought it would work like a dream but it was rubbish. It was slow & kept crashing. I found out that I needed a registry cleaner - so back to PC World and discovered "WinCleaner Complete PC Care" which turned to be a bargain - listed at 20 notes, it also turned out to be half price. I got that home and ran it - it did a great job, it even has a virus killer (for one PC only) included which I can use on the affected machine. although things loaded up faster, the dreaded internet Explorer 8 still played up. I then cleaned my system using the seperate features on the PC care kit (I"d used the one click auto cleaner before and things worked even better. Still, explorer 8 wasn"t right. so I gave up and installed explorer 7 and Eureka! it now runs perfectly. I later found out that "beta" means it"s a test version for developers and not the general public - aghh! I wish I"d known that before it would"ve saved no end of time.
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