Keeping Busy

Its been a while...

Have you had a stroke?

No. Just been so busy with real life that blogging and other online activities have taken a back seat. Apart from ranting at substandard car companies here's what I've been up to:

• Got made redundant. Boo
• Got a new job with a great web design (york) company: Brightfive. Yay.
• Built some new web projects of my own, the best of the bunch by far is my clever Hotel Finder application. Its pretty useful (I think). I did a more detailed write up of it here.
• I got married. Yay. Wife has a blog too. Best link to it I suppose. Its mainly hormonal rants and recipes. You have been warned.
• Having a baby. Yay. Boy. Due in September.
• Got sunburnt like a proper Guiri (or is it Langosta?) on my last quick trip to Spain. Boo.

So its been a busy year so far.

Whilst not really my line of work any more - I still like to keep tabs on the Spanish property market. Here's a post I made on Spanish Property Insight using Google's Trends for Websites to compare traffic levels.

Lets not leave it so long next time...

Evans Halshaw York

Word of advice: Do not buy a car from Evans Halshaw, York.

Utter cowboys who sold me an unsafe car, did a botch fix to avoid paying for the part and then washed their hands of any responsibility.

THANK YOU Evans Halshaw.

I was laughed out of the showroom at the notion of a courtesy car whilst they were "fixing" mine. This left me over £200 out of pocket as I needed to travel to London, so my only other option was the last minute fares on the trains, expensive taxis and the inconvenience of not having my own transport. This with a heavily pregnant girlfriend and luggage was not a lot of fun.

THANK YOU Evans Halshaw.

A month earlier when I walked in with my hard earned money in my pocket, it was a different story of course. They were tripping over themselves to greet me, take me for a test drive, ask me about my favourite football team and all that other false chummy bollocks that low life, no-conscience salesmen effortlessly exude like so much crude oil.

Since their customer service consisted of laughing me out of the building when I said the words "courtesy car" I'd like to know - was it unfair of me to expect some sort of transport, having given them the best part of £3,000 of my hard earned money?

The car they sold me wasn't going anywhere, so I (wrongly) assumed they would be bending over backwards to help me get back on the road again.

No fuck off and pay for the train all the way down to London. Your pregnant bird can carry the cases by the way.

THANK YOU Evans Halshaw.

Anyway at least, I thought, they will have the car fixed when I get back.

However after waiting over a week (and me chasing them on the phone) I eventually get my car back. Funnily enough, this visit to the showroom was not marked with the earlier cheery greetings and pally inquiries as to which football team I supported. I was ignored, indeed blanked by the sales staff - the only person talking to me was the mechanic handing me the keys back.

Then look where I ended up -

THANK YOU Evans Halshaw.

I found out later (from a reputable garage) that instead of replacing the faulty part when I took the car in - they simply cleaned it up.

I ended up paying a proper garage a further £600 to get the faulty part replaced.

THANK YOU Evans Halshaw.

Oh and the response from their customer service department? - Not our problem - you should have taken out a 2 year warranty that our salesmen were also trying to sell you. At a huge commission. Don't let the door hit your arse on the way out.

THANK YOU Evans Halshaw.

At least I am not the only one wise to their cowboy ways. There are numerous forum threads containing people enjoying similar levels of "customer service".

Such as

http://www.canyoutrustthem.com/index.php?go=search&adv=yes&company_name=638

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews171361.html

http://www.vectra-c.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4651

http://www.ciao.co.uk/Reviews/Evans_Halshaw__21702

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=399980

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=1654905

In fact take your pick -

Google: Evans Halshaw

So don't say you haven't been warned. In fact, if you know someone looking for a car in the York area, do them a favour and share this story with them. They'll thank you.

The Wealth of Croesus

This article gives you an insight into the crazy, wonderful life of a billionaire. The chap in question is the co-founder of some microchip company, whose private details are unravelling in court following a series of lawsuits.

The pick of the vignettes that are titillating the court include:

• He had a secret underground party room, that even his wife was unaware of,
• He smoked so much dope on his private jet that the pilot was forced to wear an oxygen mask,
• He set up a drugs warehouse and dressed it up with fine art and top end audio-visual kit,
• He would invoice friends and employees for drugs and hookers, for tax purposes, itemising these as "party favours".

Work hard, play hard.

Out for a stroll - Caminito del Rey

For those of you who enjoy adventurous walking holidays, check out this chap's video. This is filmed at Caminito del Rey, a spectacular Spanish gorge.

It is supposedly closed to the general public following several deaths from falls, though that doesn't seem to bother our intrepid cameraman. The build quality of the footpath will be familiar to anyone who has bought an off plan property in Spain.

Childhood Dreams

Reading through some blogs I noticed that Google video has had a revamp.

Remember them?

Since their acquisition of Youtube, I always wondered what exactly G would do with their homegrown video site.

Well, they've actually neatened it up quite a bit - and importantly for me on my piss poor 1MB connection it seems to stream more smoothly than a lot of the youtube content. Or maybe thats just my imagination...

Anyway...

in the process I came across the following video of a lecture given by a chap called Randy Pausch. He is a very bright chap, a professor of clever computer science stuff, and who happens to be dying of cancer.

His lecture is about childhood dreams, and demonstrates the intellect and ambitions of a very inspirational man. He is also very funny.

The times they are a-changing

Hello, blog. Like an inattentive, philandering husband, I have ignored you, but now I return to the fold. So much to tell, so much to share.

Some news

I am changing my work situation shortly (going solo), and am hoping to devote a little more time to this site as well as a few others, inbetween becoming a full time sex tourist. I'm also hoping to rant about the Spanish property market, put up some more tat I find on the net and generally vent my spleen.

Bear with me (plus I've got some great photos)...

Millsbomb

A Thousand Words...

I love a good photo. 

By that I don't mean when you didn't chop granny's head off in those pics from Majorca. 

No. I mean those fantastic pictures you see in high end newspapers and magazines. The sort of pictures that stay in your memory for a little while longer than you might expect. 

Some of the best images from the likes of Annie Leibovitz, Herb Ritz and Richard Avedon are on display in this great website

It is divided into fashion, sports, journalism etc. Click on the links at the bottom to select a new category.

  

John Smeaton: One Man against Al-Quaeda

Meet John Smeaton, a baggage handler at Glasgow airport and part time superhero. John was responsible for helping subdue or "banjo" (his words) one of the terrorists following the abortive attack on Glasgow Airport.

"Come to Glasgow and we'll set about you"

Basically he kicked the guy in the nuts. Well and truly. Since then, and deservedly so, John has become something of a hero. Al-Quaeda foolishly assumed that the Scots would be a soft target. Clearly Osama has never spent a Saturday night on the piss in Glasgow.



Read more here and here about this latterday Braveheart.

Batgirl Spotted In Valencia

Apologies, dear reader for my absence of late, but I have been on a mind bending, liver busting fortnight's holiday.

It all began with 2 good friends who came to visit and ended with a 4 day, 16 man stag-athon featuring a particularly unconvincing Batgirl. In rural Spain. The locals were suitably unimpressed.


The real joy was discovering Valencia on the second night (no comedy drag superheroes in tow this night). In between ordering 16 Jack Daniels & cokes, I realised what a cool city this is. Fantastic architecture melding with trendy cafe life, plus some superb places to eat (as well as drink). There was a thumping concert on in the bullring when we arrived, and the following day we shook off our hangovers to go and watch the World Touring Car Championships at the motor racing circuit.


Great Stuff. Anyway Millsbomb is slowly getting back to normal, so expect the usual tat shortly.

Madeleine McCann

Madeleine McCann, as you all must be aware by now, was abducted from Praia Da Luz in Portugal some 10 days ago. She will be 4 years old today.

One avenue that the authorities are investigating is that Maddie may have been taken across the Portuguese border into Spain. There has already been a widespread awareness campaign by groups of expats in various areas of Spain and Gibraltar.

You can help by posting a picture of Maddie in your local shops, bars, restaurants, wherever.

Sky News website has a useful poster for people to download and print off.

Unfortunately at the time of writing this their website appears to be flooded with requests for info, so the link is temporarily unavailable.

Update: The Liverpool Echo has a poster available for printing/emailing here.

If you think you have any information, no matter how insignificant, please call the Portuguese investigation team on +351 218 641 000.

A Mother's Journey

I stumbled across this today, it is the 2007 Pulitzer photography winner. The series of photos are entitled A Mother's Journey. I don't normally post stuff like this, but I just found it utterly compelling.

http://www.sacbee.com/static/newsroom/swf/april07/mother/

Time Lapse

This is quite beautiful, its made by a chap called Ollie Larkin.

Charity Begins At Someone Else's Home

Millsbomb would like to say a big thank you to Mark and Sorrell Lewis who invited me to their house last Saturday for one of the best evenings I have had since moving to the Costa del Sol.

The evening was a charity casino night in aid of Motor Neurone Disease, and was a great success. Not only did a large number of us get riotously drunk, playing roulette, blackjack and poker but Mark, Sorrell and their friends managed to raise knocking on a thousand Euros for the MND Association. Brilliant.

I particularly enjoyed getting fleeced whilst learning the rules to Texas Hold 'Em, then discovering I had won some riding lessons on a Shetland pony in the charity raffle. Now, thats a night out.

Beating them off with a sh**ty stick

Millsbomb is a happy boy today - just taken ownership of my Fiat Fanny Magnet -


Got to go shopping for my Alan Partridge leather driving gloves...

Beware of direct debits

In the UK the rules governing who can help themselves to your hard earned cash are fairly stringent. Not so in Spain. Here is my rant that I posted on www.spanishpropertyinsight.com a week or so ago:

The site is run by Mark Stucklin, a journalist who writes on Spanish property issues for the Sunday Times. It has a helpful community attached to it.

I set up a direct debit with Terra to provide a dial up internet connection to my house. This was my arangement for around 2 years.

In the early part of this year, ADSL (broadband) finally became available in the part of Spain where I live.

So I signed a contract with Telefonica who now provide me with broadband. Obviously I did not want to carry on paying for the TErra dialup service as I now no longer needed it.

I searched the Terra website for support/how to/ FAQs any way of contacting them to cancel my dialup service and the 25 EUR per month I was paying. All I could find was an email address: support@terra.es (or was it sopporte@terra.es not sure). I emailed this address twice with no response.

I decided the best course of action was to cancel the payment through my bank (solbank) which I did.

I then find out this week that I have been paying this 25 EUR fee!

Maddened I went the bank who showed me that they HAD in fact cancelled the payment, but that Terra had requested the same amount using a different reference number and slightly different name! So it was paid out of my account - for the last 6 months!!

Unbelievable. The lesson I have learned is check your statement and query anything you are unsure of. You have the right to claim back any money within 20 days that you feel you should not pay.

Really happy.

Love is in the air

Sorry no posts for a wee while. But I have been working on a pet project, my dating in spain website - PebblesOnTheBeach.com.

Go have a look, I'm still debugging bits of it but its getting there. Post a hello in the dating forums while you're there!

Oh good, another f*cking blog

Yes, I know, the last thing the world needs is another blog that nobody reads. I’m not a “citizen journalist”, or even a particularly good writer. I don’t have anything particularly exciting going on in my life to write about and I don’t work for some huge exciting company where I can leak any fascinating inside info.

But I sat down today and thought I really would like one place where I can keep all my thoughts, pics and interesting crap I find on the web. I had a look at a few different sites and couldn’t quite find what I was looking for. So hey I started a blog. So lets move on.

Who am I then? Well my name is Jamie Mills and I am originally from the UK, but now live and work in Andalucia, Spain. I moved here around September 2002 with a friend of mine.

I am an IT consultant, of sorts.

Anyway, I’m probably going to be writing about

• Real Estate stuff - especially relating to Spain
• Internet Marketing - what I do for work!
• Stupid/funny crap I find on the web, and
• whatever I feel like. Its my blog.

Its already getting a bit boring isn’t it? Told you.

My Big Fat Disclaimer

All the opinions expressed in this blog are mine and not those of my employer. Or my mum.

Plus any SEO advice I give comes with a warning - ITS ONLY MY OPINION, I MIGHT BE WRONG.

So we're clear on that? Good.