Anthony's FRESH PLASTIC

Any regular readers will know that, apart from eating more fibre than me, I'm not particularly fond of scams or spam.  And, to be fully inclusive, otherwise legitimate companies knowingly teaming up with ones of a more dubious nature.

Sometimes the scams are so bad that they're laughable - with only the most greedy, foolish and naive at risk of falling for them.  Others are so well executed, so plausible that even intelligent, skeptical folk can be fooled.

To be honest, I don't mind some scams - I actually look forward to the spam I get in one email inbox.  Yes, really!  Why?  Well check these out, this is what's currently in one of my Google Mail accounts' spam folder and I think you'll see why...

Spam, scam, thank you ma'am!

These are funny, are they not?  Only a moron is likely to click through.  And, if you're really that silly, you really shouldn't have the use of a computer!

Right now I'm getting mostly offers for 'luxury' watches, prescription medicines (usually Viagra) and diplomas as, apparently, I deserve one.

Some are downright bizarre...

Sonny reckons more inches in my pants means less steps to success.  I disagree.  More inches will lead to me walking funny - which in turn will lead me to taking more steps.  That's not success in my book, that's FAIL.

Marcy would like to sell the medicine to me with love and care.  That's a generous offer as I don't get enough love from Boots or Lloyds.

Back to my pants, Alfonso proclaims that I'll get to feel a big man if I have a bigger tool.  As I don't want to feel any man, big or small, I'm quite happy to leave my tool the way it is.

Latisha and Lucien both ask if I'd like to adopt a luxury watch?  Er, no thanks - that could work out more expensive than a new puppy or that kid in Ethiopia.

Heather's invented cheap designer watches, genius!  That beats sliced bread hands down.

And Bernado suggests that, if I have no luck with pretty women, I enlarge me stick as it's my way out.  Way out of what, I'm not entirely sure.  Maybe if I'm trapped in a lift with a bunch of models and I need to beat them away as I attempt to exit through the emergency hatch?

The above is all fun and games, but not all scams are.  Some scams can not only hit you in the wallet, they could end up giving you a criminal record.  More about that in the next post, I've a new friend in Nigeria to help out in the meantime...

Last week I did something that just a week earlier would have seemed unthinkable.  Well, two things actually.  One was meeting music legend Jazzie B from Soul II Soul (was a big fan growing up).  And the other?  Knitting baby booties the following day in what I believe to be the only knitting shop in the world that has a drinks licence (FWIW I was drinking hot chocolate!)

Me and Jazzie B!

Releasing one's potential - don't keep it bottled up!

Knitting and Jazzie weren't connected yet they share a common theme - along with my occasional appearances on TV, breakfast with a president, help from a CEO and my Eurostar adventures all this year.  Learning to say 'yes, I'll give that a go' can lead to good things, expected or otherwise.  I've found there are a whole host of opportunities and experiences to be had, you've just got to be open to new things, push yourself and not worry about failing.  That said, there are times when the risks involved outweigh the benefits.  Failure at base jumping isn't an ideal outcome, but knitting... What's the worst that could happen?

Realise the Potential

So, there I was a few days ago when, out of the blue, I was asked if I'd like to try my hand at knitting and three other challenges (more on those to come) for American Express's 'Realise the Potential' campaign.  To be honest, they had me at 'knitting' - spelling 'realise' the correct, English way, was the clincher!

It may sound odd, but I really was looking forward to knitting.  Had I knitted before?  Yes, at school - many, many moons ago.  Did I enjoy it then?  Oh god no - but then my teacher was rather scary and er, not very good at teaching.  My mum, on the other hand, isn't scary and is an excellent knitter.  I doubt she'd ever want to teach me though - I'd try the patience of a saint!

My battle to Waterloo

The venue: I Knit London, 106 Lower Marsh, Waterloo, SE1 7AB
The time: 10.30am
The problem: Public transport and a late night too many!

I Knit London

Off to a great start, I successfully managed to drag myself out of bed when my alarm rang.  Continuing this good fortune I left home in plenty of time to catch the bus to the train station for the 8.42 London Waterloo service.  Things then went a little off the rails.  The bus was late.  When it arrived its ticket machine was on the fritz - which meant the boarding took longer than the journey.  So I missed the 8.42 and, guess what? Yep, the next train was delayed (having broken down in Salisbury, 50 miles away).

Despite all this, I managed to get into London with 15 minutes spare.  This was a good thing as I'd not yet had breakfast.  The knitting shop was just a short walk away so figured I had time to grab a doughnut.  Normally, perhaps, but in my zombified state, due in part to my previous late nights, I found myself strangely disorientated.  I've been to Waterloo hundreds of times but had never been to this side of it.  Even with a simple route, excellent directions I was provided with and GPS I still managed to get lost!

I made it in the end though, just in time...

I'm not good with needles

As Nurse Sheila, who's been giving me flu jabs every year since I left school, will attest - I'm not good with needles!  Well not the pointy ones that prick the skin, anyway.  As for the knitting variety - my results weren't as spectacular as the others taking part in the challenge but, knowing myself as well as I do, I think I did rather well.

It's a start, anyway!

From the picture you'll notice I didn't quite finish the booties.  Heck, I didn't even finish a booty.  I'm not even sure if this could cover a baby's toe.  But, you know what?  That's besides the point.  I gave it a shot.  I Knit's Gerard was amazingly patient with me even when I kept making the same mistakes over and over again.  Thinking about it, knitting reminded me of my usually dismal attempts at putting flat-pack furniture together.  I tend to be a klutz with these things - Allen Key, needle - it's all the same.  Fortunately I suppressed my usual tendency to curse each time a mistake put me back to square one!

After little over two hours my lesson was over and, in a strange way I was quite proud of my modest accomplishment.  I gave it a shot and did a little better than expected.  And you know what?  I'm going to see if I can get the hang of it - at my own time, my own pace now I have the basics.

With three more tasks to go, perhaps my true potential is yet to be seen.

Fellow newb knitter Abi and myself. She at least knows how to hold the needles...

The Rise of the Potentialist

From a study carried out on behalf of American Express it was found that a growing number of people wanted to explore their potential, looking for more balance in their lives and fulfilment on a personal, just a career, level.  And this would appear to be the result of the economic downturn.

Like I said earlier, I'm all for trying new things.  Most things I do, I do because I enjoy them.  If they lead to something career-wise good.  If not, well that's still good - I plough ahead regardless.

The research, which was carried out by Future Laboratory, revealed that more than half the population are looking into acquiring new skills, knowledge and experiences or they were doing so already.  Things that will make them more valuable to employ.  I can understand this especially.  Due to illness I missed out on a lot of schooling and work experience - but as important as they are, they can be made up for.  It's clear that in these ever-changing times paper qualifications aren't the be-all and end-all.

Full circle

I do already have one hobby that's been enriching my life since I was a kid and, funnily enough, it also involves needles - but knitting it is not.  It's DJing and it's purely for fun.

Knitting, needles

BTW, Abi's take on the knitting experience is over on her blog here

This is classic and pretty much somes up Britain's mismanaged train network to a tee...

Network Rail, the company responsible for the country's rail network (as the name suggests) have discovered that sending 200 of their staff from Reading to Coventry is prohibitively expensive by train - so they're sending them by coach instead!

An open return ticket by train is a whopping £135.  By coach, it's just £12.  A bit of quick mental arithmetic tells me that the train costs just over 11 times more than coach.  Yes, that's right - ELEVEN times!

Despite Network Rail being the company that maintains the rail system they aren't entitled to discounted services from the companies that run the trains on their network.  Even if they were to receive a discount, it's hardly likely it could compete with the far more sensible fares provided by bus and coach (including the ones run by the same companies that run the trains!)

By choosing road over rail, the company has saved itself £24,000.  None to shabby!

Remember a few days ago I posted about a bunch of luxury phones being sold on the streets of Basingstoke after being half-inched from a warehouse outside of the town a couple of months previous?  Well it appears these are being flogged on eBay.  Not only that, it would appear they're not making much of an effort to conceal what they're doing from Hampshire's finest.

I can't say I'm 100% sure these are the stolen handsets but, check the following out and I'm sure you'll agree there's some fishiness here, is there not?

'Ello 'Ello Moto

Priced at £1,200 new, these aren't your common garden variety mobile handsets.  Seems just a little suspect that someone based in Basingstoke should be selling one on eBay for such a considerable discount on the RRP (especially as it's listed brand new in box) not long after 118 were stolen from a warehouse near Basingstoke...

'Direct from Motorola UK' indeed!

Of course this could be genuine, in which case I apologise to 'Tanya' for thinking otherwise - and offer these words of advice for her: In future, tell the gift-giver how much you appreciate what they've given you but ask them to take it back to the store for a full refund.  They'll appreciate that more than you flogging the £1,200 gift they gave you for a third of the price.  Hey, you could split the difference and both be quids in!

Just up the road from Basingstoke, in Fleet, we have two more lucky people who received an Aura as an unwanted gift...

Fleeting

Britain's Most Unwanted!

On the off chance that these were stolen and you naughty people get charged with handling stolen goods or whatnot - DON'T blame me!  FFS, what do you expect if you put the items on eBay?  Do you not realise that the boys in blue check eBay for such booty and a quick Google search brings up the Basingstoke seller?

Lego bricks make wall, Berlin Wall

Okay, so only one of these films actually revolves around the fall of the Berlin Wall and the impact it had on East Berliners.  The other two are still worthy of a view too as they either feature attempts to cross the border or what life was like for those living in the former German Democratic Republic.

Good Bye Lenin!

This is one of my all time favourite films.  It can be appreciated even if you're usually not into foreign language films.  Sorry about the sound quality of the trailer, 'twas the best I could find...

The Lives of Others

This gives you an idea of what it must've been like to live in the former GDR, how the state monitored every aspect of people's lifes.

And finally, back to something more light hearted and in English (for those of you not keen on subtitles...)

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

This is supposedly the real life story of US game show creator, Chuck Barris.  He was responsible for 'The Dating Game' ('Blind Date' in the UK).  He was also, apparently, an agent for the CIA - chaperoning winning couples from the show to Berlin...

Oh, and I said, games too, didn't I?  Well make that one game, Tony Hawk's Underground 2 which, if my memory serves me right, has Checkpoint Charlie in it and the odd piece of the wall.

Nokia are instigating a product recall, swapping out faulty chargers.  Apparently some have casings that can come loose, posing a risk of electric shock.

According to The Times, there's a whopping 14 million that need to be replaced!

Maybe not one of these, but you get the idea!

Rather than list all the ones affected - head over here instead.

Thieves stole over one hundred Motorola phones from a warehouse near Basingstoke, Hampshire back in September.  Now local police are claiming these are being sold in the town itself.  Okay, so not exactly the most interesting story ever but, as you'll be aware from the title, these are no ordinary phones. No siree, Bob!  These things are worth a whopping £1,200 each!

I wouldn't pay £120 let alone £1,200 for this!

I'm a local and have yet to see or hear of anyone with one of these or to have been approached by someone trying to flog one.  But the police claim these are doing the rounds and have warned people they face up to 14 years in prison if they buy one.  Yeah, right.  Recently a local man stabbed his wife to death and is likely to serve just 3 years.  Strange world we live in, isn't it?

Here's Trusted Review's take on the Aura - as it's known.  There's no 3G, Wi-Fi or GPS and only 2 gig of built-in memory with no options for expansion.  Seriously, what the fudge?!?

I'm not in the habit of buying stolen goods and this phone wouldn't tempt me anyway.  I mean really, £1,200 for that?!?  Yes, a circular screen looks rather cool but can you imagine finding apps to work with it?  No Opera Mini for a start!

I've been swamped this week so I wasn't able to blog everything I wanted to blog about straightaway.  Well not on VOX anyway.  I was microblogging over on Twitter.  So, if you follow me there (and you know you should) you'll have seen me posting live from the big bash for the BB1.

I was asked along to the launch party of Peugeot's new baby, the BB1.  It was a rather glamourous affair held at The Hospital Club in London's Covent Garden on Wednesday night.  Yours truly was by far the most dressed down - although I did have brand new shoes on!  Attending the event were a varied bunch of celebrities including Christopher Biggins, the Cheeky Girls and Jodie Kidd (who, by the way, is unbelievably tall!)

Giant Jodie on the left, in front of Jazzie

Being completely out of touch with modern pop culture I had no idea who all the other famous people were - only that they had to be famous as the photographers were taking lots of pictures of them.

One person I did recognise was Soul II Soul's legendary Jazzie B, who was DJing.  Two of my all time favourite tunes were Back to Life and Keep on Movin'.  I can't even begin to say how awesome it was to meet him in person.

Me and Jazzie B!

Just a quick rough 'n' ready summary for those that didn't see my earlier VOX post or my tweets...

The BB1 is an all electric concept vehicle that Peugeot have designed.  Although it's very small it's big enough to fit four.  It's very comfy - at least the front seats are (there's a video of me in the driving seat on its way - once I've finished editing it!)  As for the rear seats, I didn't manage to sit in the back, my own motor skills (excuse the pun) aren't all that great after a few drinks!  To be honest it looked like a tight squeeze but then again, it's not really meant to fit four adults in on daily basis.

From now on I'll be the eye candy at all international motor shows!

Now, as many of you will know, I'm not a motorist.  I can drive but for various reasons I don't have a car (no, I didn't lose my license!)  On top of that I'm not a motoring enthusiast - so you won't ever catch me watching Top Gear.  But I do love fun and quirky designs and, well, anything that challenge's convention.  I'm saying this so that you know where I'm coming from.  If you're after detailed analysis and comparisons between other electric vehicles you'll need to go elsewhere.

The great thing about such events as these is the chance to talk to top bods at the companies.  This, IMHO, is more fun (for want of a better word) than talking to the celebs.  Why?  Because it's great being able to ask questions about the product, the design and how it came about.  There's a real passion there, they're talking about their 'baby' after all.  Speaking of which, that's apparently why Peugeot named this mini marvel of theirs the BB1.  Cute, huh?

What really amazed me about the car, and I think I may have an 'exclusive' on this (I don't recall seeing it elsewhere!) is that it only takes six hours to fully charge from a normal household electrical supply.  As it has a range of 75 miles, that's none too shabby (especially when you think how long those electric ride-on kid's cars take to charge!)  Remember that the BB1, and similar cars, are meant as a city run-around vehicle - they're not designed for a long motorway commute.  And, if you're still not convinced that 6 hours is not too long - it will charge even quicker from a suitably equipped garage supply.

And finally (for this post, at least) the obligatory preview/launch/press event bag of swag.  This one included 'foot relief' lotion (incidentally the BB1 doesn't have foot pedals), hand and body wash, a USB memory stick, a little note pad and, in that box, a mini digital picture frame...

The goods

By the way, if you're in and around London this weekend, the car is on display in Covent Garden between 10am and 7pm.  I know, I know, that's a bit late notice for today - but there's still a whole day Sunday.  Full deets here.

I've been invited up to London tonight to see Peugeot's concept car, which I think may be a little more than just a concept, in some swish place called The Hospital.

Many of you will know I don't actually have a car and haven't driven in years - so it may seem odd that I'm excited to see this but anyway, I am.  Now if only they can lend me a trial one or fit one into a goodie bag (it is pretty small, so maybe, just maybe...)

Anyway, here's a video of it, the 'BB1' in action (oh and it's 100% fully electric!)