It has taken me a while however I’ve now finally got time to update my blog. It has been a busy last few weeks for me, not least because one of my weeks was spent in Las Vegas to see the Joe Calzaghe fight.
Myself, Jason, Mark and Lydia went over there for five days to experience a place that is genuinely extra-ordinary. It was quite an eye-opener; from the exquisite but massive hotel buildings, to the incredible energy from walking around at 5am in the morning - the place is something else.
The boxing itself was the highlight, with our boy coming up trumps against Hopkins, who famously said that he’d “never get beaten by a white boy” - oh dear oh dear. The after show party too contained a lot of fun and frolics, most of which are pictured over here, with celebs such as Tom Jones, Whitney Houston, Arnie, Rocky, Beyonce, Amir Khan, Brandy, Sam Davis, and Catherine Zeta Jones turning out. What a Saturday night - just a shame it is now nothing but a blurry drunken hazy memory…
As well as entertaining, I found the trip pretty helpful, as I realised a few things about myself. Firstly, I’ve realised that I hate themed loos. You know, like the ones you get in O’Neill’s that say”Mna” and “Fir” - which one is bloody which? Exactly, I walk into the “Mna” one too… But in Vegas there were a numerous themed places which had loos which required some brain-power when it came to picking the door to go in. I hate that shit. In the Jungle cafe is was “Tigress” and “Rhinos” - in the Aussie bars it was “Bruces” and “Sheilas”, and then another place “Winkles” and “Winkle-pickers” - what the hell?
Still, these brain-games took my mind off the constant frigging static shocks I was getting everywhere I set foot in Vegas. I swear I must have been hit by a thunderbolt at some point during the week because every person or piece of metal I touched seemed to send 10,000 volts of pure pain up my arms. Playing the fruities was pretty much a no-no because of this… so maybe it was a blessing in disguise. Thankfully it was not only me that had it… I’ll never forget the look of the casino dealer when Jason handed him his dice back as it came off the table. Jason duly picked it up and passed it over, only to spark out the croupier with his static. The poor guy looked at his hands in wonder, and simultaneously gave Jason a puzzled look, one akin to having just been shocked by a walking electricity pylon.
Toilets and static aside, there were a few other observations which I couldn’t help but make. One of them included the tipping debacle - ludicrous, you’ve served me a drink with a moody face… and you WANT a tip for it?! Also, smoking in enclosed places - how weird - it wasn’t enforced there, so it felt mad to walk around seeing people chug fags inside hotels.
Anyway though, great trip, little jetleg - a definite place to see without a doubt!
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If you’ve never heard of Magento now, you most definitely will have later.I’ve blogged about it before, and it will soon become the standard shopping cart software around the world, mainly due to its simple yet incredible features, but also because of the speed and the clean Web 2.0 look and feel of the sites that it produces.
Produced by a company called Varien, Magento is easy to use once it is installed. However, quite unfortunately, it has already got a reputation for being a bit of a nightmare to install. You need to have your server set up just right, with the right versions of PHP, MySQL, Apache - plus you need to have right PHP extensions such as PDO_MYSQL added. For many people who may have webspace from a reseller, or on a managed server, this may well prove difficult.
Even I myself have use a dedicated fully accessible server, and getting it just right is a bloody tricky thing to do. That’s why, if you’re looking for some reliable to host it, you should use Simple Helix. This company have a numer of flexible hosting packages which are amazingly good value, but the best things is that they have a number of packages already pre-installed on the server.
This means if you want to have Magento set up on your webspace, you simply login to their Control Panel and select Magento, and it unzips it and installs the package on your site for you. I would really recommend it, especially even if you’d just like to test Magento.
Get on to SimpleHelix.com and sign up and give it a whirl, because you’ll definitely find Magento so much nicer hosting it here!
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Thanks for your comment, We are constantly trying different things and hopefully soon we’ll have a solution. We appreciate your custom and hope you return.
Kind Regards
Toko Management
Well, I’m not holding my breath. Actually, more to the point, I am…
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If you are not from Bournemouth and you are thinking of having a stag weekend in town, by all means come down, but whatever you do, do not set foot in the shithole that is called “Toko”. This place is an absolute pit. I have never had a good night there, the drinks prices are ridiculous, chances of getting served are slim to Ethiopian, and to top it off the place really smells so badly that it makes my downstairs toilet seem like paradise.
For some reason last Friday (I must have been pissed), I walked into Toko at 3am and as soon as I went in there was this disgusting aroma of man puke and sweat. It started off as a relatively “high class” venue back in the day, but now unfortunately it has gone down the cess-pit route. I just sent this letter to them….
“I went out last Friday night and walked in to Toko, only to have to walk out 20 seconds later, due to the unbelievably disgusting smell of sweat, puke, and disinfectant.
Is there any way this can be dealt with. I’d have been willing to have bought a number of drinks and spend more nights there if this evil smell wasn’t there. It makes me want them to bring back smoking in enclosed spaces.
It also makes me slightly concerned that a lot of your trogolodite customers don’t have a sense of smell.
Surely opening the doors in the daytime, doing a deep carpet clean, and a good old polish elsewhere would really help to make this venue more approachable.
There is definitely life in the old dog yet… I just wish it didn’t smell like one.
I’ll let you know if I get a response…
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I’m usually in the car listening to one of my eclectic albums, as I do, and today I thought I’d slap the album “Attack Decay Sustain Release” from my friends and musical geniuses Golden Section. I met these lads a while back when they supported Scouting For Girls, and only recently they decided to go on hiatus for a while, only days after they released another quality EP.
Often I don’t really take note of the meaning of lyrics in songs, and I just think the syllables are there to match that of the beat - however one of their songs called “With Violence” really caught my attention, not only for their interesting take on the subject matter - chavs, but also for the downright accuracy in describing these 21st century parasites. So, given my recent blogging and annoyance at this breed, I thought it was pretty damn apt to give you a chance to listen to what I think is a very very good song…
They just wanted a hit, they just needed a fix - no excuse
Can’t trust them now, can’t be left on their own - they’re liars
They’ve stolen your car, they’ve messed up your day - it’s “our” fault
Vandalising a bus, vandalising a train - it’s a “night out”.
Misunderstood in shadows, far from the path they should take
I can’t forgive their mistakes, they say it’s youth - it’s evil
To be understood with violence
Restart it and load up again, it’s only a matter of time
Before this tracksuit army disperses
Years of care down the pan, they will work where they can - it’s hopeless
Vandalising a bus, vandalising a train - it’s a “night out”
I can’t forgive their mistakes, hey say it’s youth, it’s evil
To be understood with violence
Restart it and load up again, it’s only a matter of time
Before this tracksuit army disperses
No streets are safe, all lights are out
They’re hunting in packs with their gold baseball caps
They’ll be smoking some pot by your local One Stop
They’ll spit on the floor as you walk through the door
And with their vicious stare you’ll wish that you weren’t there
Restart it and load up again, it’s only a matter of time
Before things move on, we’re tired of these wasters
Well you’ll just be driving along
They’ll be right behind you with their full beams on
Twinkle twinkle neon lights
Follow by the hisp, their pneumatic bliss
There are no words to describe how much I feel so ashamed to be part of this,
This noble nation, this standard country
They say there’s nothing to do, I say they’ve got no clue - try reading
They just wanted a hit, I’ll give you a tip - they’re northern
They say it’s youth, it’s evil
To be understood with violence
Restart it and load up again, it’s only a matter of time
Before this tracksuit army disperses
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