Oh no, what can I possibly do? I have just been informed that: We are a professional internet consultant organization in Asia, we have a pretty important issue needing to confirm with your company. On Sep,8,2009, we received an application formally, one company named [company name] applied for the brand keyword “thepickards” and following domain [...]

Ahoy there, ye scurvy swabs. Many of ye, me hearties, will already know that it be International Talk Like A Pirate Day today where ye has to talk in the pirate lingo as much as is possible. Anyone failin’ to talk like a proper swashbucklin’ buccaneer will find themselves consigned to Davy Jones’ Locker after [...]

Concluding my three-part piece looking at the “wonders” of Gateshead College, I decided to have a look at their website to see whether the problems I encountered with their enrolment procedures were symptomatic of further problems, or whether this was just a one-off. At first glance, what I saw was not exactly promising: Hmm. I [...]

So, yesterday I posted about the complete shambles that was enrolment at Gateshead College, and suggested that I really wasn’t happy with what they had done. I had two separate lines of response from them. Because I don’t believe in directly naming people, I’m going to call them “A” and “B”. “A” contacted me over [...]

I went to Gateshead College last week to sign up for AS Level English on the afternoon of Monday 7th September. Quite a simple procedure, one would think. I had telephoned the previous Friday to check that there were spaces available on the course, and that I should turn up between 4pm and 6pm to [...]

I’m quite into local history and finding out about stuff I didn’t know, so I’m quite a fan of Heritage Open Days, where you generally get a chance to see certain historical thingummies and find out about them for free. Obviously, the “for free” part is another thing which adds to the attractiveness of the [...]

Okay, okay, I have to come clean about the post title. There is no “Mutiny on the Bounty on Ice”, at least as yet, although it surely can’t be long before the BBC attempt to make it into some sort of talent show, no doubt with Andrew Lloyd bleedin’ Webber gurning all over the place. [...]

It troubles me that Jack is the most popular name for boys for the thirteenth year in a row. Obviously it’s slightly flattering that so many people want to name their children after me (I can’t think why else — the sudden surge in popularity coincided with me at university, where I can only presume [...]

So Newcastle have got off to a good start in the Championship: five wins and a draw saw them topping the table by two points over the international break, but with a tough game away to Cardiff coming up tomorrow, there is no guarantee that they will remain there. But at present, they are playing [...]

Well, okay, you probably don’t want to be doing this, but if you’re not aware of what is being posted on Facebook about you, you can be pretty sure that someone will be saying something negative about you. I’ve looked at this sort of thing in relation to the public sector when I asked Do [...]