Well, I've got a bit of a thing about nuts in general (not that way - I'm married thanks).
I'll eat just about any kind, from nasty Asda smart price peanuts (don't you think cheap peanuts have a really weird but aditictive flavour?) to the most expensive.
Anyway, back to Dormen's nuts. Seems to me they take an awful lot of care and attention in getting the seasoning right, and the level of roasting is jsut perfect.
I've just sat and eaten a bag of their 'Speciality Mixed Nuts', and they are unbelievable.
The macadamias are roasted to perfection, just the right crunch as you bite in - but then still with the perfect soft creaminess you'd exepct.
The smoked almonds are perfect. The smoke flavour is fairly subtle, but checking the back of the packet reveals it's natural hickory smoke flavour so that explains it. Subtle, but just perfect again.
The cashew nuts taste great. Is it just me or since cashews became more popular they seemed to get sweeter? I'm not sure, but these don't taste sweet, just really good.
The 'Katjang Nuts' are awesome. They're coated, spiced peanuts. Now, if you've tried something like Nobbys Nuts or Nutsters then you might be put off trying these. Those two brands have a thick, heavy coating (and in the case of Nobby,s sweet. What's the deal with that?) - these Dormen's nuts have a really light coating that is super crunchy, savoury and not at all oily. For me the level of spice was just right, a little tingle - but not enough to over whelm the flavour of the rest of the mix.
Then the joker in the pack. Caramalised Almonds. The coating was thick, but unlike other honey roasted nuts I've had the sweetness wasn't cloying. It was more like a properly made caramel. It was super crunchy too. I've had so many disappointing caramlised nuts that I was sceptical about these. But don't be. Again they're great.
And the best bit of all is the way the sweetness from the caramel, the smoke from the almonds, the spice from the 'Katjang' and the salt from the others combine in the bag to create and overall seasoning for all the nuts.
The only downside with these nuts is that they are not cheap. But quality doesn't come cheap. Go and get some. The price is worth it.
Saturday, 24 February 2007
Saturday, 3 February 2007
Goat: My ISP (again)
After my last rant about my ISP (still searching for it's replacement), I never thought I'd have to rant about them again. But unfortunately for them they fucked up again.
As you might have guessed from my previous post my ISP is Demon.
Anyway. There I was happily checking my bank statements when I noticed in November 2006 they took a direct debit payment on the usual day, and then again a day later.
No problem, thought I, I'll just fire off an e-mail to customer support and they'll sort it out. After waiting a month with no reply I called them up.
Cue unhelpful call centre that may well be based in India.
They informed me that I might not have been billed at some point in 2006 so they might have taken two payments to cover the 'missed' one.
Now their advice was to go back and check my bank statements for a missed payment. Hold on one fucking minute. They can't tell me if they missed taking a payment? I have to go and check for them?
And then if I didn't find a missed payment I would have to send photocopies of my bank statements to their head office and they would then sort out a refund. Now excuse me.
1. They can't look at their billing system and tell me what month they missed a payment?
2. They didn't give a flying fuck that if I didn't have those statements (and I would have to buy copies from my bank) there was nothing they would do.
3. The direct debit guarantee states they should sort out problems quickly. Not me. Them.
Basically gross incompetency seems to have become a way of life for some large businesses around here.
One more reason to steer clear of Demon internet (I do seem to remember it took them three months to set up the original direct debit as well).
As you might have guessed from my previous post my ISP is Demon.
Anyway. There I was happily checking my bank statements when I noticed in November 2006 they took a direct debit payment on the usual day, and then again a day later.
No problem, thought I, I'll just fire off an e-mail to customer support and they'll sort it out. After waiting a month with no reply I called them up.
Cue unhelpful call centre that may well be based in India.
They informed me that I might not have been billed at some point in 2006 so they might have taken two payments to cover the 'missed' one.
Now their advice was to go back and check my bank statements for a missed payment. Hold on one fucking minute. They can't tell me if they missed taking a payment? I have to go and check for them?
And then if I didn't find a missed payment I would have to send photocopies of my bank statements to their head office and they would then sort out a refund. Now excuse me.
1. They can't look at their billing system and tell me what month they missed a payment?
2. They didn't give a flying fuck that if I didn't have those statements (and I would have to buy copies from my bank) there was nothing they would do.
3. The direct debit guarantee states they should sort out problems quickly. Not me. Them.
Basically gross incompetency seems to have become a way of life for some large businesses around here.
One more reason to steer clear of Demon internet (I do seem to remember it took them three months to set up the original direct debit as well).
Saturday, 6 January 2007
Goat: Virgin Digital
I have approached music download services with extreme caution. I still go out and buy the CD and then rip it for my MP3 player. I don't like buying things and then being told what I can do with (i.e. DRM = Shite)
But recently I bought a pack of AAA batteries and there was a code for a free track from Virgin Digital in it.
Well - worth a go thought I. It isn't gonna cost me anything.
So I created an account, which was an easy mellow experience. I dug around for a track I would like to download. Even though it was going to be encumbered with DRM at least it hadn't cost me anything.
I settled on The Sisters of Mercy Neverland (full version) from the recently re-released Floodland (the original only contained a track called Neverland - A fragment).
This epic goth track stretches to around 11 minutes. So I checkout, enter my code and hey presto it appears in 'My Stuff' at a cost of 0p.
I download it. Hmmmmmmm..... What's this? 4Mb? For an 11 minute track - it must be shit quality. That's not it my good friends. I'm happily listening away and the quality is pretty good. 4 minutes in - where the fuck has my song gone?
Now we see why it's only 4Mb. So I tried again - same result.
Time for the contact us link. Two days later a helpful e-mail arrives telling my how sorry they are etc. But not to worry - they've fixed the problem. It'll all go fine now. Just download again.
So I did. 4.5Mb. Fixed my big hairy arse.
So I emailed them again. This time they just ignored me. No reply. Nothing. Not even 'Shut up you whinging fucker - it was free anyway'.
I left it a month or so and tried to download again. No joy. Same problem. So I emailed them again. A week later I'm still waiting for a response.
On the strength of this experience it'll be CDs for me until they stop producing them. Honestly, if they want to get people switched on to this stuff they need to do a couple of things:
1. Drop the DRM - no one should be told what they can do with a track they've paid for.
2. Customer service. Sort out the fucking problems and quick. I'm a potential customer they've lost.
Stay grumpy ladies and gentlemen. Until next time.
Update:
After some e-mails fired off to 'technical support' at Virgin Digital, which went unanswered (no suggestions, ideas or even a plain 'Sorry') I received an e-mail saying I would receive a full refund shortly. Of a free track?
So I fired some e-mails back to Marcus (who was the guy sending the refund messages) and he basically responded with an email that ended up with this quote:
Downloads work for around 97% of
all our users but for some users it will not
work, no matter what they try. The only thing
we can suggest (as you say you meet the PC
requirements) is to just test again.
Sometimes things do go wrong.
So basically if you're one of the 3% you are FUCKED and they can't do anything to help you. This sounds like they couldn't give a shit, or they are just technically incompetent.
My advice is to stay away from this steaming pile of horse shit. No technical support. Lame excuses. Apathy towards 3% of their customers. Brilliant.
But recently I bought a pack of AAA batteries and there was a code for a free track from Virgin Digital in it.
Well - worth a go thought I. It isn't gonna cost me anything.
So I created an account, which was an easy mellow experience. I dug around for a track I would like to download. Even though it was going to be encumbered with DRM at least it hadn't cost me anything.
I settled on The Sisters of Mercy Neverland (full version) from the recently re-released Floodland (the original only contained a track called Neverland - A fragment).
This epic goth track stretches to around 11 minutes. So I checkout, enter my code and hey presto it appears in 'My Stuff' at a cost of 0p.
I download it. Hmmmmmmm..... What's this? 4Mb? For an 11 minute track - it must be shit quality. That's not it my good friends. I'm happily listening away and the quality is pretty good. 4 minutes in - where the fuck has my song gone?
Now we see why it's only 4Mb. So I tried again - same result.
Time for the contact us link. Two days later a helpful e-mail arrives telling my how sorry they are etc. But not to worry - they've fixed the problem. It'll all go fine now. Just download again.
So I did. 4.5Mb. Fixed my big hairy arse.
So I emailed them again. This time they just ignored me. No reply. Nothing. Not even 'Shut up you whinging fucker - it was free anyway'.
I left it a month or so and tried to download again. No joy. Same problem. So I emailed them again. A week later I'm still waiting for a response.
On the strength of this experience it'll be CDs for me until they stop producing them. Honestly, if they want to get people switched on to this stuff they need to do a couple of things:
1. Drop the DRM - no one should be told what they can do with a track they've paid for.
2. Customer service. Sort out the fucking problems and quick. I'm a potential customer they've lost.
Stay grumpy ladies and gentlemen. Until next time.
Update:
After some e-mails fired off to 'technical support' at Virgin Digital, which went unanswered (no suggestions, ideas or even a plain 'Sorry') I received an e-mail saying I would receive a full refund shortly. Of a free track?
So I fired some e-mails back to Marcus (who was the guy sending the refund messages) and he basically responded with an email that ended up with this quote:
Downloads work for around 97% of
all our users but for some users it will not
work, no matter what they try. The only thing
we can suggest (as you say you meet the PC
requirements) is to just test again.
Sometimes things do go wrong.
So basically if you're one of the 3% you are FUCKED and they can't do anything to help you. This sounds like they couldn't give a shit, or they are just technically incompetent.
My advice is to stay away from this steaming pile of horse shit. No technical support. Lame excuses. Apathy towards 3% of their customers. Brilliant.
Boat: Clive Barker
Well, at the moment specfically Imajica.
I've read all of Cliver Barkers books (and seen most of his movies), but most of them many years ago. I started re-reading a few (I've just previously read The Great and Secret Show and Everville) as a (slightly) more mature person.
I just can't believe how good they are. Imajica is a masterwork of imagination. It deals with a lot of the usual themes present in his books, blurring the line between the 'real' world as we perceive it and the worlds cut of from us by our own ignorance and arrogant self importance.
The characters are the usual bunch of misfits and curiosities, but still believable and they just suck me deeper into the story.
Really I could bang on about this for bloody ages, but I can't do it justice. If you have any liking for the fantastic or just the flip side of humanity then go and read this book.
I've read all of Cliver Barkers books (and seen most of his movies), but most of them many years ago. I started re-reading a few (I've just previously read The Great and Secret Show and Everville) as a (slightly) more mature person.
I just can't believe how good they are. Imajica is a masterwork of imagination. It deals with a lot of the usual themes present in his books, blurring the line between the 'real' world as we perceive it and the worlds cut of from us by our own ignorance and arrogant self importance.
The characters are the usual bunch of misfits and curiosities, but still believable and they just suck me deeper into the story.
Really I could bang on about this for bloody ages, but I can't do it justice. If you have any liking for the fantastic or just the flip side of humanity then go and read this book.
Wednesday, 3 January 2007
Goat: My ISP
I was really really happy with my ISP until fairly recently.
I had a 2Mb ADSL connection, Usenet access with good completion ratios (the retention for binary groups was only 3 days, but it wasn't a paid for extra), no usage limits, good customer service and only about 2 outages (the longest was 4 hours) in 2 years of usage. All for 25 quid a month. Nice.
So they then announced they were going to upgrade us all to 8Mb. Cool! For no extra money. Yay!
Then - the small print. They added fair usage to the terms and conditions. No biggy I thought. I got to thinking about it and I wanted to know a rough cap on the usage (as they chuck you off the service they throttle you back during 'peak' hours - meaning pretty much all day except the middle of the night). Because they don't have any lower packages that have a cap, I read the T&Cs again and sure enough they did have a 'rough' guide. They said you could download '1000 MP3s and 5 movies a month and still be under their point of speed capping.
Hmmm.........
So I kind of averaged out 1000 MP3s at roughly 4GB. So far so good. Now movies. Do they mean the typical 700MB DivX type of movie? Or a 1:1 dual layer DVD rip at about 8.5GB (I know these a rough figures).
If I had to guess I bet they used around 1GB per movie. This means 9GB could make you fall foul of their 'fair usage'. I didn't want to believe that so I started a bit of correspondence with their customer support.
After a good few attempts they basically refused to answer what a fair usage limit would be. That ain't good customer service.
And now their Usenet access has become awful - even plain text groups are missing messages from threads. Indeed they now even tell you if you really want Usenet access to buy an extra service from someone else! Yet their network status summary shows 'News' as 'OK' - I think OK is bit generous. Shit is the word I would use.
So to sum up, the speeds gone up - but I can't download as much as I want anymore without falling foul of a speed cap, and their Usenet access has gone down the pan. Lovely.
And all they can do is tell me how lucky I am that I've been 'upgraded' for no extra money.
Excuse me whilst I fuck off and find another ISP. I'll be exorcising this Demon (the clue as to the ISP is here) pretty soon.
I had a 2Mb ADSL connection, Usenet access with good completion ratios (the retention for binary groups was only 3 days, but it wasn't a paid for extra), no usage limits, good customer service and only about 2 outages (the longest was 4 hours) in 2 years of usage. All for 25 quid a month. Nice.
So they then announced they were going to upgrade us all to 8Mb. Cool! For no extra money. Yay!
Then - the small print. They added fair usage to the terms and conditions. No biggy I thought. I got to thinking about it and I wanted to know a rough cap on the usage (as they chuck you off the service they throttle you back during 'peak' hours - meaning pretty much all day except the middle of the night). Because they don't have any lower packages that have a cap, I read the T&Cs again and sure enough they did have a 'rough' guide. They said you could download '1000 MP3s and 5 movies a month and still be under their point of speed capping.
Hmmm.........
So I kind of averaged out 1000 MP3s at roughly 4GB. So far so good. Now movies. Do they mean the typical 700MB DivX type of movie? Or a 1:1 dual layer DVD rip at about 8.5GB (I know these a rough figures).
If I had to guess I bet they used around 1GB per movie. This means 9GB could make you fall foul of their 'fair usage'. I didn't want to believe that so I started a bit of correspondence with their customer support.
After a good few attempts they basically refused to answer what a fair usage limit would be. That ain't good customer service.
And now their Usenet access has become awful - even plain text groups are missing messages from threads. Indeed they now even tell you if you really want Usenet access to buy an extra service from someone else! Yet their network status summary shows 'News' as 'OK' - I think OK is bit generous. Shit is the word I would use.
So to sum up, the speeds gone up - but I can't download as much as I want anymore without falling foul of a speed cap, and their Usenet access has gone down the pan. Lovely.
And all they can do is tell me how lucky I am that I've been 'upgraded' for no extra money.
Excuse me whilst I fuck off and find another ISP. I'll be exorcising this Demon (the clue as to the ISP is here) pretty soon.
Monday, 1 January 2007
Greetings...
Well. Here I am.
I never considered creating a blog until just recently but now, as I get older (perhaps I should qualify that - I'm only 33) I've started that grumpy old man thing. Already. At this rate I'll be a little ball of spite and complaints by the time I'm a truly old man. Never mind.
So anyway, I've created this blog to just sound off about things that have really annoyed me and to praise good stuff where ever I find it.
I'll start off with my next post with a little tale of a 'lovely' music download service.
EDIT: Well, I decided to rant about my ISP first. Music downloading rants later.
Stay cranky. Your Grumpy Bunny.
I never considered creating a blog until just recently but now, as I get older (perhaps I should qualify that - I'm only 33) I've started that grumpy old man thing. Already. At this rate I'll be a little ball of spite and complaints by the time I'm a truly old man. Never mind.
So anyway, I've created this blog to just sound off about things that have really annoyed me and to praise good stuff where ever I find it.
I'll start off with my next post with a little tale of a 'lovely' music download service.
EDIT: Well, I decided to rant about my ISP first. Music downloading rants later.
Stay cranky. Your Grumpy Bunny.
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