The life of Sandra Marriott

Monthly archives for July, 2010

My first foray into gardening…

Jul31
2010 1 Comment Written by Sandra

BegoniaFor a while now I’ve been thinking about starting to get to grips with a bit of gardening, but seeing as I’ve never been interested in gardening before, it’s a bit of a daunting subject to get started with!

I really want to sort out our own garden, but that’s gonna take a hell of a lot of work, and at the moment I just don’t have the time – too many ideas and not enough knowledge!
So I’ve been looking into buying some house plants to cheer the place up a bit. I was looking at buying a spider plant as I’d been reading about them and they seemed fairly easy to maintain, but just one it’s own would look a bit drab. I want some colour!

So I took a trip over to Homebase this morning and a had a look around the indoor plant section, and again, there were some nice interesting and colourful plants, but you would need two or three so they didn’t look out of place. And as I’m not sure I won’t kill the plants I buy, I don’t want to go mad buying lots.

begonia flowers

So, I settled on the begonia above – at least I’ve heard of those! I think it’s really pretty so now I just have to make sure I don’t kill it!

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Does the Catholic Church have a place in modern society?

Jul16
2010 Leave a Comment Written by Sandra

Most of you will know that I see the majority of religions as a form of communism but today the Pope has really pissed me off, so this rant will be aimed at the Catholic Church.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-10659180

The pope has decided that ordaining woman priests is as grave a situation as paedophiles. What century does this guy live in?
Why is he so afraid of moving his religion into the modern world and why do discrimination laws not come into play?
How can allowing woman priests be anywhere near as grave as abusing children?

The Catholic Church is one of the most wealthy organisations in the world and that is all they care about. Progress be hanged. No change can be good etc.

I would ask all Catholics out there why they still believe in a church that knowingly covers up paedophilia and wants to oppress it’s woman – and they have the gall to have a go at Muslims for oppressing woman.

If you want to believe in a religion then please choose Buddhism. It is the only religion as far as I can see that actually believes in bettering yourself and observing tolerance.
Better yet, why not just believe in God and leave religion out of it?

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And still they come…

Jul13
2010 1 Comment Written by Sandra

After yesterday’s rant about comment spammers I have today received an email from (yet another company) soliciting work for web design and SEO for the Blackmore Players website.

These people clearly use scrappers to get web address as they haven’t bothered to check our rankings – we’re top 2 for phrases like essex amateur dramatics, essex amdram etc. I know what I’m doing! and the design is quite good now as well – certainly better than it used to be!
The site is clearly about an amateur theatre group, and most people in this country would understand that most amateur sports and arts groups and not going to have the cash to splash on a web agency…there is no real business requirement.

So, please, if you ever get these generic emails that offer web design beyond your wildest dreams, and taking you to the dizzy heights of page 1 on Google without giving any indication they’ve looked at your website (and no, “we’ve looked at your website” does not mean they have), hit the junk button and consign it to the depths of your spam filter.

I do sometimes send out emails on behalf of my web design company that do solicit for business, but it is normally because I’ve heard of a business, looked them up on t’interweb and cannot find them. However, my email will be specifically about the business I am emailing.

Please help us rid the world of shiesters who are just after your money!

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Posted in Technology

Comment spamming

Jul12
2010 Leave a Comment Written by Sandra

I am so fed up with the comment spam on this site.

I got so angry this morning I outed a spammer who had left their twitter id!

Not only does it waste my time, I get very frustrated with the whole, ‘this is great information’ type comments left on my posts about Pam. If you’re not going to even read the post then you can just go f*ck yourself your moronic retards.
It’s people like this that help keep the reputation of the SEO industry in the sewer.

I use a spam filter so none of that nonsense will ever see the light of day, but you lot wind me up with your inane drivel all with the aim of getting a link back to your pile of piss website where you hope to scam some idiots out of their hard earned cash.

I would just like to say that I do welcome comments from those of you who have actually read the blog post you are commenting on, and if you have something worthwhile to say and want a link back to your own site, then I’m more than happy to oblige, but comment spammers…well, DEATH TO ALL COMMENT SPAMMERS!

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Muggy Sunday

Jul12
2010 Leave a Comment Written by Sandra
After the hottest day of the year so far, we had the muggiest day of the year – lovely!
This weekend was spent in Colchester town attending various appointments, followed by a sit down under a tree in Castle Park watching the world go by – with a strawberry slush puppy!
We then nipped over to mum and dad’s for a barbeque. Yummy!
Sunday was so muggy it was unbelievable.
We lounged around in the morning watching the Superbikes and British Grand Prix then decided to take a trip out to Fingringhoe Nature Reserve.
Mum and dad used to take me there loads a little girl – always had my nature I-spy books with me!
It seems to have changed so much. It seems a lot smaller now. And much more overgrown.
It didn’t really help that we seemed to be followed around by a swarm of mozzies!
We will go back there but I think we’ll take a picnic next time!
Oh, and it’s raining today…
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Nice weather we’ve been having!

Jul05
2010 Leave a Comment Written by Sandra

Well over the last week we have a lovely time going out and enjoying the sun!

Last Monday we took the day off work and spent the day at Colchester Zoo.  It’s been a while since we last went and the new orang-utan enclosure was open – finally! And the orang-utans are soo cute! We bought our gold cards again which means we can go as often as we want…and we can visit Newquay Zoo for nothing when we go to Cornwall later in the year!

On Tuesday we got the train up to Portman Road in Ipswich and watched Pink perform on her Funhouse tour! Oy-oy, what a performance!!!

Quite possibly the best gig I’ve been to this month :0)
To those in the know, we were in the Cobbald Stand, row U – the last row to be used so we had enough space behind us to stand up and dance without showing how badly we both dance lol!

The picture above was taken on my HTC Hero so the stage looks twice as far away as it was! I saw James dance for the first time ever – and I’m surprised James didn’t dehydrate with the amount of sweat dripping from his forehead!

On Thursday we went out for dinner at the Harvester with friends.

The weekend weather actually didn’t disappoint for a change! We went into town, did a bit of shopping and then bought a slush puppy and went and sat in Castle Park and watched the world go by.

On Sunday we took a trip out to Cooper’s Beach on Mersea Island. It’s a bit windy on Mersea!! We had a bit of a walk, took a picnic and then lay out in the sun. I read while James slept, and yes, I had to nudge him when he started attracting the dogs by snoring too loudly. And yes, I got sunburnt – but only on my arms for a change! Eventually we worked out that we were facing Brightlingsea, after guesses of Maldon, Burnham and the like before realising they are on the Crouch and we were looking at the Colne! Doh!

All in all it was a really nice weekend and serves a reminder to get away from the computer a bit more!

Ooh and today we booked our holiday to Cornwall! Our first holiday together – ever!

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