Taking over everything in sight and making existing users of whatever it was jump through ever-changing hoops to get access. Or not. This is not the first time this has happened and now I think I've had enough. Think I'm going to abandon my other blog and start a new one when I've had time to look around and see what other blogging platforms are available. Preferably with a cast iron guarantee that Google will never be allowed anywhere near it.

- the White Horse of Kent being waved enthusiastically at the Albert Hall last night.

Can we have a referendum? After all, we were a kingdom first!!! And we have our own laws and customs.

The Queen is not Her Royal Highness!

One of them got this wrong at the Jubilee. I don't know if it's the same one, but she got it wrong today. Don't they have style guides to read in advance of events like this?

(Though really, if you don't know the correct way to refer to Her Majesty the Queen, you probably shouldn't be commentating for the BBC at all!)

(Royal British Legion Chaplain has a lovely voice, though.)

- if she's 'surprised' at hearing schoolchildren addressing their teachers as 'Sir' and 'Miss'?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-27403902

Go and look!

The BBC has a story about a woman who was asked by a checkout operator in Sainsbury's to end her mobile phone call before being served. The woman customer apparently says she's going to take her custom elsewhere in protest. Sainsbury's wants to apologise to her and offer a £10 voucher in recompense.

I'm tempted to tell Sainsbury's I shall be taking my custom elsewhere in protest against their spineless failure to back up their staff member and uphold decent standards of courtesy.

From a story on the BBC website this morning -

The Queen will be introduced to people who worked on the building project, and a number of TV personalities...

I know old rules of etiquette aren't strictly observed any more, but this one bugs me. The Queen isn't introduced to anyone. People are introduced to her. The BBC should know this.

I don't think there's anyone in the world to whom the Queen would be introduced.

- that Alex bloody Ferguson was royalty, the amount of media attention his abdication resignation is getting.

I didn't watch all of it, but I thought what I did see of the BBC's coverage of Baroness Thatcher's funeral was immeasurably better than their Jubilee coverage last year. David Dimbleby did the commentary on the event as well as hosting the studio guests - all of whom (that I saw) had something interesting and relevant to contribute. There wasn't an ill-informed girlie reporter or C-list celeb in sight.

There were moments when Dimbleby was talking when he should have shut up, and moments when he was talking nonsense, but mostly he kept quiet and let the pictures tell the story.

The interior of St Paul's looked magnificent, so kudos to whoever was in charge of the camerawork there.

So B/B+ for this one, BBC. Use it as a basis for planning the much greater state occasions that will be coming along in the future.

My printer is old. That means that a) I can only buy the ink cartridges online and b) they are expensive.

When I attempted to print something at the weekend I found that, having not used it over the summer, what had been a nearly new ink cartridge had dried up and wouldn't print.

I could buy a new printer, with more easily obtainable ink, for not much more than the price of a new cartridge for this one. But on the other hand, this printer still works, and I don't want to add to the gigatons of obsolete IT equipment that must be dumped each year.

For now, I've ordered a new cartridge. But I think I might have to look around for a new printer. (That is only a printer. I have a perfectly good scanner and I don't want a fax machine.)

On a more cheerful note, I was delighted to see that Amazon now offers the option of having things delivered to a nearby official Amazon pick up point, such as a convenience store, to be collected by the customer. I rarely buy things online that won't fit through my letterbox, because of the bother of having to wait in for deliveries, so am very pleased with this innovation. (It probably isn't all that new, but apparently it's quite a long time since I bought anything from Amazon and I hadn't come across it before.)