Category: review

PePiPoo is a fantastic on-line resource for this, their forum is great. Everything is free so if you ever feel like your council or district is bullying you into paying for something you feel like you shouldn’t pay then stand up for yourself and use the help from the guys/girls on PePiPoo.

Seriously, stand up for yourself.. Too many motorists just pay to avoid the headache and too many authorities are flexing their muscle thinking they are invincible.

I think the general consensus among normal folk like myself is that those in power are mostly out of touch Eaton type boys with a good heart but out of touch with “Joe public”. The wikileaks reports simply highlights some of the decisions these power wielding employees of states were maybe taken after 1 or 2 too many espressos.

I’m not saying we don’t need diplomats or people with specific responsibilities, far from it. I just think the leaks highlight that so much power given to a few in an internet connected society is actually counter productive. 20 years ago this wouldn’t of been the case — Diplomacy needs to evolve.

As for our monarchy making stupid comments. Monarchy = Individuals with too much power. I don’t take our monarchy seriously so please any foreign readers do the same. The monarchy doesn’t affect my daily life in anyway, shape or form and that is how I like it 🙂

I consider myself a global citizen before any other type of citizenship — Problem solved.

I have an opinion to share..

We had substandard equipment and a lack of support going into Afghanistan yet the American commanders were surprised when we gave a 1/2 arsed effort. Ask any normal American citizen if they feel this was a surprise and I can guarantee their answer will be no.

Our military isn’t the pride of our nation, we are grateful for all they have done and continue to do but I do not believe we are a global military force nor do I want my country to be.

Will these leaks prompt governments to be more open by default or more secure?
The natural reaction by those in power is to try to be more secure. I hope this isn’t the case. I am a global citizen, I don’t want more rules/laws/policies/restrictions on how I live my life.

The governments have a perfect opportunity now to come out and be more open with sensitive information, we can take it, we live in an information age.. The clue is in the name!

I support wikileaks and all the founding orgs and Julian in publishing the papers. I think they are needed to take our society from a draconian information age into a truly fair society. After all that is what we taught at school. Wikileaks just makes it a reality, unfortunately the reality has a few short term painful implications.

So that’s my thoughts, nothing controversial. Nothing work related but hopefully if someone in the pub blurts “Wikileaks just want world war” or “Omzg America will get nuked by XXX” remind them this goes on every day behind closed doors and in theory it should lead to a more open, fairer future.

Post at Guardian – How the hell are Guardian so awesome?

I admit the primary purpose of my blog isn’t to commentate on the state of the food industry in the UK however every now and then my exceptional dining experience forces my fingers to bash violently in either blissful joy or rampant disgust. Unfortunately this review is of the latter type.

In Bradford, choice is not limited but variety is and it was this that drove me to try the Russian Restaraunt. We arrived at about 7pm only to be told they couldn’t take card. For some reason I had a moment of English etiquette and decided that it would be a good idea to go to a cash point and then back. Big mistake, I should have just gone elsewhere.

Returning, cash wielded, we arrived back at the restaurant hoping for a truly cultural experience. Maybe that is what we got. It began with us ordering drinks, the simplest thing for any restaurant to accomplish without failure, surely? Not at the Russian Restaraunt. I ordered a £3 pint of natural orange juice. For that type of money I expected Katie Perry to come use any part of her body I wanted to squash the oranges whilst covering any song of my choice. I asked “Is it proper fruit juice” to which the restaurant owner replied. I’m not sure. I went for it anyway, mistake #2.

We decided on starters and mains and placed our order, this was an arduous task as both the restaurant owner and waitress (who couldn’t speak English) wanted to have a conversation with us trying to sell us a number of side dishes. Pretty annoying to say the least…

The starter came and we were further disappointed as the chicken pancake had transformed into a mushroom pancake. School boy error… At this point you are probably thinking, “Why aren’t you walking out?” Well that’s because I’m used to poor service in restaurants, this isn’t my first review and I feel it’s important to share good and bad experiences with others via the power of internets.

During the main course all of the earlier fails made quite a lot of sense and were somewhat forgotten as both of the dishes were great. Plentiful, full of flavour and good hearty food.

After we were done eating we waited 20 minutes or so for the waitress to come and collect the dishes and bring us a bill. This didn’t happen so I went up to the cash desk and waited for the restaurant owner to finish his pointless conversation that other guests were cringing through.

Instantly the owner began an Oscar winning builder impression, this was because he didn’t have a bill or any record of what our table had consumed. He looked at me and said on average a table in my restaurant costs “£20-£25 per head”, “What would you pay?”. Again I came over all British and replied “That seems fair — however”… I then asked him if he wanted me to tell him about the things I didn’t find quite right… He approved so I did…

We agreed on £20 per head, and I handed him my hard earned cash. He then proceeded to ask me if I wanted to join his mailing list, being a tech guy and getting thousands of emails every day the last thing I want is marketing spam from a restaurant I didn’t enjoy. It was a stupid question and my answer was an obvious No… As he proceeded to try to sell me “Why I should be on his mailing list” I began to get a bit annoyed. I kept saying no and he didn’t get it. I asked for a receipt. He couldn’t give me one. If I was a tax inspector I would be suspect about this place for sure…

All of the above seems bad enough right? Possibly the only way he could go any lower was to go racist. As a lifelong Bradfordian I know that racism isn’t just pointless, stupid and placeless. I don’t expect it in Bradford, as a city we grew out of it and we hope that we can start reaping the benefits of being a truly multicultural city. When I said No to him asking do I want to join his mailing list, he asked me why I not. I told him I like to try lots of restaurants. As he lowered his voice and leaned in towards me he attempted to discretely scowl “They are all Asian though so the food is not so good”. I hate any type of discrediting based on race or ethnicity. Simply put this is racist and the guy should seriously reconsider the location of his business.

The restaurant is only 10 minute walk from what is probably the best curry house in Bradford. The sweet centre.