Vintage UK public information films - my review

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My music review: The False Dots

​Today’s blog post is my music review: The False Dots. 

Who are the False Dots? 

The False Dots are rock’n roll band. Local Ska & Punk Rock group that are based in North West London. They are from Mill Hill, Barnet, Greater London. 

I know a friend of mine (Roger Tichborne of the Barnet Eye blog) who is in the band. Here are their story on the website

My favourite False Dots songs list. Top ten 

1. Buy me a bottle of Jack 

2. The Burnt Oak Boogie 

3. Kick Out Capita song anthem (They’ve cleared out your desk)

4. Men and Motors 

5. Wacky Races 

6. Sunday in the 70s 

7. The song about cancer (Don’t be a afraid of the finger up your bum) 

8. Put me in the spotlight 

9. The Greatest British Fail 

10. Get your knee off my brother’s neck (powerful anti racist song) 

Meaning top three False Dots songs I liked the most are Burnt Oak Boogie, Buy me a bottle of Jack & they’ve cleared out of your desk. 😀🙂🎵🎶

CPTPP: Post Brexit Britain in the Pacific

​It’s official. The UK signs the biggest trading bloc that is based in Asia Pacific region. We are now an pacific country after signing the CPTPP. Benefit for the British economy? Barely growth. 0.08% now how is that really a benefit to the UK post Brexit? Totally none. #CPTPP

Largest trading bloc in Asia Pacific that is members of 11 countries (all based in Asia Pacific geographically) & now the UK is the 12th. Asia Pacific nation that is located geographically in Europe Compare with the EU (which the UK left the bloc), it’s 27 countries. #BrexitFail

160 years of London Underground

​London Underground celebrates 160 years of delivering the services to London for Londoners who enjoyed going for the ride on the Tube, the bus, DLR, Overground & the Elizabeth Line). 😀🙂🚇 I took the photos at Mill Hill East station last week. #londonunderground #tube160 #Tube

So yeah. What a milestone. Happy birthday to London Underground. I am proud to be a Londoner who enjoys going on the ride with the Tube & other TFL services like the Elizabeth Line & London Overground. 🙂😀🚇🚆🚊🚉

Canada Day & facts about Canada (2023 edition)

Hello everybody 

Two years ago I originally published my blog post about the facts about Canada & Canadian national day Canada Day. 

Well a lot has changed since 2021 so I thought I would want to do a updated edition about Canada facts (2023 edition). Here it goes. 😀🇨🇦 

Facts about Canada (based on my research).

Canada has two official languages. English & French. 

The capital city is Ottawa. 

Largest city is Toronto. 

Currency: Dollars (Canadian Dollars) & it has the King (the same British monarch) on every banknotes. 

National anthem is O’ Canada. 

The prime minister of Canada is Justin Trudeau. 

Here’s more further information. 

Hawaiian Pizza (with pineapple toppling) was invented in Canada. Yes, really in Canada (not in US state of Hawaii) by Sam Panopoulos. 

Canada is the second largest country in the world after Russia. 

Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world’s lakes combined. 

Canada has the largest coastline in the world. 

Canada’s land border is the neighbour the United States as both nations shares land borders In 8 out of 13 provinces and territories.

Population in Canada is 40 million (as of June 2023). 

Quebec is the French speaking province in Canada. 

Canadian Parliament is based in Ottawa. 

Canada has 6 time zones. 

In sports, Canada is known for hockey. 🏑 particular ice hockey. 

National symbol of Canada is Maple leaf 🍁 

Canada has wildlife. Bears, goose (Canadian goose) & beaver. 

The name of Canadian syrup is maple syrup. 

Niagara Falls is the most popular tourist attractions for Canadians. It shares with USA (the state of New York). It is the largest waterfall by water volume. 

In terms of economics & GDP, Canada is on the list of countries that has the largest economies as Canada is ranked 10th.

Literacy rate in Canada is 99%

Life expectancy in Canada is 82 years. 

Lastly but not least, there are famous people who are from Canada & there are names that you might be familiar with & not familiar with. 

Justin Bieber

Drake 

Jim Carrey 

Celine Dion 

Michael Bublé 

The Weeknd 

Justin Trudeau 

William Shatner 

Avril Lavigne

Bryan Adams 

Even Elon Musk (who appears to hold three passports: South African, Canadian & American). 

The list goes on. 

So yeah, that is the information about the country Canada. I provided my research to my relative (my cousin) 4 years ago as an presentation for her on WhatsApp. She (my cousin & her close family: husband & two kids: daughter & son) have been living in Canada since 2019 when they did moved out from Nigeria. From 2019 to 2022 they have been living in Toronto, Ontario. Nowadays my cousin & her family lives in Calgary, Alberta & last month, they became newly Canadians by naturalisation. Perhaps I should be an honorary Canadian if that is possible. 😀🙂😁🍁🇨🇦

Anyhow I want to wish my readers (if you are Canadian) a very Happy Canada Day. 🇨🇦🍁😀🙂

Canada is one of the places that I would love to visit. It is one of my dream travel destination. The country that is an multicultural country (just like USA, European countries like France, Holland, Belgium, Germany & here in the UK) with diversity. So yeah, I would recommend anyone to visit Canada at least once in lifetime & make it your bucket list travel destination. 

And finally I went to Yesterday (29th June 2023) I went to Trafalgar Square, Charing Cross to attend Canada Day London event. It was very interesting to see the Canadian community, celebrating their national day (which actually the date is 1st of July = Canada Day). 😀🙂🇨🇦🍁

I am not really Canadian. Although I know some of my friends who are Canadians) so it was definitely a good fun at Trafalgar Square. 

So yeah, Happy Canada Day Canada. My second blog message wishing the country & the Canadian people. 😀🙂🇨🇦🍁

Free flight ticket & holiday voucher debacle

I have been busy as of late & I recently travelled to Scotland as of last month (which I will talk about it on my blog). 

I want to tell you about the whole free flight ticket & holiday voucher debacle & why I felt deceived by both airlines: EasyJet and Cathay Pacific. 

Let’s start with Cathay Pacific. 

My criticism on Cathay Pacific

Hello Hong Kong 2023 campaign video

& the second video 

Here’s my rant. What a flipping joke. 🇭🇰✈️🎟

On Tuesday 9th May 2023 (few weeks ago), I was not in a happy mood. The promotion of “free Hong Kong air tickets” & that I regretted for feeling foolish for participating the competition. when the free flight ticket to Hong Kong was opened (9th May which was the date of opening date) on 9am, promoted by the “Hello Hong Kong” campaign, Cathay Pacific & the Hong Kong govt (to persuade tourists from all parts of the world to visit HK given for the fact that Hong Kong had suffered financially in the last couple of years due to the Covid 19 pandemic and strict lockdown measures. Which that it affected the tourism sector & HK’s economy), myself and my brother’s carer (who used to live in Hong Kong from 1993 to 1997), we went on the website (Cathay Pacific) & we did tried to participate in the competition in the chance fo win the free aeroplane ticket to HK.

Unfortunately, I wasted 2 hours of waiting in the online queue for my turn to answer the questions (anything related about Hong Kong or Hong Kongse airline Cathay Pacific = national carrier) as I kept on checking on my phone & the computer. Even myself and my disabled brother’s carer already know that there were people who were also in the queue of wanting to win the free air ticket to Hong Kong as well. After all, all I saw was “Thank You For Your Support. All tickets from the Cathay Pacific “World of Winner” ticket offers online campaign in United Kingdom has been awarded”. 

My reaction was like “unbelievable”!!! I even read the tweets on Twitter about people campaigning that Cathay Pacific have deceived anybody who do wish to visit Hong Kong for holiday/vacation leisure purposes. Until to now, they (Cathay Pacific) haven’t even explained properly as to why they closed the competition on the day it was opened & closed it within two hours later. As if many people here in the UK all wanted on the website, trying to win & some of them had won it (which I do not believe that is the case). Especially the end date was scheduled from Tuesday 9th May to 15th May (Monday 15th May). 

So yeah, another airline deceived me. Cathay Pacific. Just like EasyJet (which I will talk about it on my blog in separate paragraph). Even I do not have any actual plans to visit Hong Kong anytime soon (knowing it’s not guaranteed whether I really go there or not) & that I was not disheartened that i didn’t win. I was not impressed of how Cathay Pacific conducted the free plane tickets to Hong Kong campaign in an awful way. That is not a good business marketing & not good PR. For that myself and my brother’s carer were not happy about it at all. Especially when we & everyone else in the UK were taken for fools. Feeling deceived. There were no other issues in other country including Asian nations with the same problem but yet, it only happens to the UK. It’s unbelievable. How stupid is Cathay Pacific.

Which brings me to EasyJet. British low cost airline. Which I once flow with them to Barcelona, Spain in summer of 2018 

My criticism on EasyJet 

I want to tell you something I have been mislead by EasyJet. 

All that free holiday voucher that I won in April last year. Promoted by Doritos and Walkers crisps both online & on TV for advertisement. It is nothing but a trick. 

I will reiterate by saying once again that I do not like being mislead. Especially for my experience when I was victimised of fraud and scam 7 times. Given nowadays I am very aware of misinformation & some things that may be worth interesting but really nothing but a pie in the sky.

Here’s last year EasyJet 2022 TV advert promoted by Doritos and Walkers crisps. 

I am already starting to regret winning the EasyJet holiday voucher in April last year promoted by Doritos and Walkers crisps which was originally a package holiday holiday as I first originally thought. It turns out it is a free holiday voucher for flights. 

I even tried entering the code many times. Even without a line - it shows it is not "valid". 

From expensive package holiday prices for hotel to not allowing me to enter the code for me to book the flights from London Luton to Lisbon. 

I might as well not bother with this anymore. Holiday voucher thingy & I am glad i didn’t continue to pursue it. 

At least I can still try to book flights to Lisbon, Portugal at anytime before at least the end of summer. Even my dad noticed when I was struggling to find a decent hotel prices on EasyJet app regarding package holiday.

So that is my criticisms on EasyJet & Cathay Pacific. 

My conclusion

In conclusion: I said before and I will say it. I do not like being mislead. Especially for my own experiences when I was victimised of scam and fraud 7 times. It’s second time airline deceived me regarding my interest of going on holiday. First was EasyJet for my travel interest to visit Portugal and now Cathay Pacific for my travel to interest visit HK (despite not having any current plans to visit there).

My take on Spring Budget 2023

​Last week Wednesday, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt addressed to the House of Commons. Delivering the budget regarding the state of the UK economy. Read more about what is included in UK Spring budget 2023

So with further ado, here is my opinion about Budget 2023

My take on Budget 2023

Like previous Conservative budgets under previous chancellors, a typical budget that I am not quite convinced. The only good thing I am happy is that fit to work test (work capability assessment) is scrapped completely (👍). But benefit sanctions will remain (👎).  Read my previous blog post in 2021 regarding the benefits system & how messed up is it. 

The inflation to be down by the end of the year 2023 & avoiding recession. I hope that is the case but again, I am not convinced unless if that does really happen (inflation to fall from the current level 10% to 2%). I’ll believe it when I see it (since the economy is still the only country in G7 not to return to pre Covid levels). 

With the cost of living crisis, it is not only the factors that caused the UK to be in the bad situation financially & economically due to the war in Ukraine & the aftermath of the Covid pandemic. It is all because of both things: Brexit (the UK out of the European Union) & the 13 years of the govt’s austerity policy. Plus the the rise of food banks & that is very sad. 

Also. Apprenticeship for 50 years & over. Basically, the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt wants people in the specific age group to return to workplace. In other words, the Conservative government here in the UK wants you (if you are in the age group 50+) to work until you drop with the “returnership” scheme. So the fiscal measure that is included in Spring Budget last Wednesday is just not wise. Especially that it will not solve the economic woes for the British economy with people aged 50 and over to keep working & not even to have the pension at all. Other than just keep on working until the person is weak or have passed away. That in my opinion is not right. Work is not everything and it is not compulsory (& that is why we have got the welfare system). Now there may be some who would want to keep on working and there may be some who does want to retire & does not want to work. So the government must better carefully of how they really want to achieve the goal of getting everyone back to work. In fact my friend talked all about it in his blog about the policy detailed in Jeremy Hunt’s spring budget. 

And lastly, “Brexit pub guarantee”. No wonder the govt continues to not fully understand that there are shortages particularly in the hospitality sector all because of Brexit effects & yet they keep on boasting as if there is a “Brexit benefit “. So that’s all. My take on Budget 2023