Retail Opportunity

In which we promote a good cause

Written by Forest Pines; published at 8:08 pm on July 16th, 2009.
Filed under: Linkery.

The other week I mentioned, in amongst the other things I haven’t blogged about lately, the local football club’s plan to make lots of money knocking their ground down and selling the site to Tesco, disguised as a “let’s bring the World Cup to Bristol” campaign which they seem to be using to blackmail the city planning department. There is, of course, no need to build a Tesco on the site of the football ground. There are two other branches of Tesco within about fifteen minutes’ walk of the new site, two other large supermarkets within the same distance, and a very large Tesco about fifteen minutes’ drive away.

Unsurprisingly, lots of other people have noticed this, so I thought I would put a quick mention of them here. The Bristol Blogger has been looking at the football club and council’s published figures and knocking holes in them: here, here and here. Unsurprisingly, the city council’s marketing figures seem to be vastly overstated. Meanwhile, there’s a local residents campaign to fight against the Tesco plans. They’re called BERATE, and they’ve got a blog up, with links to their petitions; and old-fashioned paper petitions in a lot of the shops in the area. I’d imagine most people from Bedminster and Southville have already seen it, but they deserve as much publicity as possible.

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Keyword noise: Bedminster, BERATE, Bristol, Bristol City, Bristol City FC, campaign, football, shop, shopping, Southville, Tesco

It’s a telly phenomenon

In which we refuse to watch the football

Written by Forest Pines; published at 7:44 am on June 10th, 2006.
Filed under: Dear Diary, Media Addict.

As I said some time ago, I’m going to go my best not to write anything about Big Brother. And so far, I’m doing quite well.

I’m going to do my best not to mention the World Cup, too. As I said yesterday, I don’t care about football at all, myself. Neither does Big Dave, even though if you met him you’d probably expect him to be a supporter.* If there’s one thing both me and Big Dave dislike more than football, though, it’s the assumption that even though we don’t like football we must be interested in the World Cup. We get funny looks just because we don’t give a toss whether England win or lose.

People do seem really surprised if you tell them you don’t care at all about it. Even people who aren’t football supporters, and who would never normally watch football. They say things like: “But it’s the World Cup!”

“Yes, I know! It’s football! I hate football!”

“But England are playing! You’re English! You have to support England! You have to at least watch the England matches.”**

“Um … no, I don’t. It’s football. I hate football. Just because I don’t want to watch football on the telly doesn’t mean I’m suddenly Not Really English.” And at that point they usually give up, and look at me a bit oddly for the rest of the day. They don’t seem to get that I just don’t care about football, any football.

So, I’m not going to watch it, or write about it. The only thing that will get me to watch England playing in it, is if somebody ties me up in front of the telly so I can’t get away from it. A cruel torture indeed.

* he would fit right into the traditional football-supporting demographic without too much trouble – especially if, like me, you only saw him in a shirt and tie at work, so didn’t realise that he doesn’t wear sportswear at home.

** all, ooh, three of them.

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Keyword noise: Big Brother, English, Englishness, football, reality tv, television, telly, tv, World Cup

“20% of sick days are taken on Fridays…”

In which someone else has started a blog

Written by Forest Pines; published at 8:28 am on June 9th, 2006.
Filed under: Media Addict, The Office.

“…this is clearly unacceptable”

That’s not a real quote, by the way. It was adapted from a Dilbert strip.* I’m sure people have used it and meant it at some point, though.

End of another week, and the start of another busy weekend. I’ve been going to so many different towns and cities lately, I should send back postcards from them all. This weekend, I’m off to yet another different part of the country.

I’ve become resigned to the fact that there’s going to be nothing on but football for the next month. Me and Big Dave might have our differences, but neither of us can stand football, and we’re both fed up of the World Cup before it’s even begun. More on this tomorrow.

Some interesting rumours are apparently going round the office as to what I do on all these weekend trips away I’ve been doing lately. They’re far more excited and lurid than the actual truth, so I can’t really be bothered to correct them all. Noone dares ask me, anyway. They all ask Dave instead, who doesn’t have a clue,* and that hardly helps stop the rumours spreading.

In any case, you can tell I live a decadent lifestyle. I had strawberries and cream for breakfast this morning. It doesn’t get much more decadent than that.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that one of the management has a blog now, and Sarsparilla said: “what if it’s better than yours?” Well, I’ve read it since then. And I know this sounds like I’m blowing my own trumpet, but it isn’t. In fact, it’s one of the most banal websites I’ve ever seen. I won’t be linking, because he does check his stats, but the design is terrible and the content is minimal:

Traffic home is still terrible, the town is full of traffic diverted away from Jameson Bridge St. Went to the Fox and Hounds after work, though – the grub is dead good, and I’d recommend it to anyone if you fancy a meal.

And that’s an entire day’s entry. I know this site can be crap sometimes, but … well, I now know I’m not the worst in the world.

* Dave might act like a womaniser sometimes, but he’s completely vanilla, and a bit scared of anything outside that.

One comment. »

Keyword noise: Big Dave, blogging, colleagues, decadance, Dilbert, football, gossip, office, rumour, weekend, work, World Cup

It’s traditional

In which we remember tradition

Written by Forest Pines; published at 7:42 pm on January 6th, 2006.
Filed under: Linkery.

Event of the day: the annual Haxey Hood game, somewhere near the top of the list of vaguely-pagan rural traditions which are largely just an excuse for a drunken mud-wrestle. Information here, here and here.

One comment. »

Keyword noise: Axholme, custom, folk, folk custom, football, Haxey, Haxey Hood Game, Lincolnshire, tradition, village football