kemble1.co.uk

So you all might remember my moans about how expensive it is living in London. Well, that hasn't changed. It's still expensive.

But I did tighten my belt - and I needed to after the extra pounds I lost cycling to and from work! But those are pounds I could afford to lose, it's the other type of pounds that I'm not so happy about.

My car broke down last week and needed a ton of work done to get it running again. I only really use it on the weekends and occasional evenings, but it's a definite necessity.

The cost of getting it running again was going to really leave me short for the rest of the month, so I used one of those small short-term loans from Wonga.com to keep me going.

I never thought I'd have to use a short-term loan, but desperate times called for it, and it was easy enough. I'm just going to have to carry on being careful with money so I don't get in that position again. Things are usually fine but when you get that occasional bump in the road it can really throw you off course!

Photo: nathangibbs (Flickr)

At the moment my small business is running around 25 computers through a network link at my office with the possible expansion to about 40 computers over the next coming months. I was wondering how many computers I can possibly hook up to an Ethernet based network before it will start slowing everything down and I have to resort to getting hold of a special Server Hosting Dedicated entirely for us. Is 40 reletively small fry compared to that kind of situation? I don’t really know the deal to be honest but I do know that I don’t want to get six months down the line and hit a brick wall because we didn’t sufficiently cover ourselves in the build up to expansion.
Eeesh, I bet this never happened to Bill Gates. Although, let’s face it, he was the one pioneering all of this upgrade crap anyway.

It's been a year since Newcastle boss Alan Pardew signed him over from Everton, but the midfielder has played just a few minutes of football this season.

We all know he was injured when he signed, but when he came back in January he made a 5 minute appearance with the main team, we thought he was back for the rest of the season. A few days later he played a full 90 minutes in a reserve game, but was soon complaining of swelling around his knee!

He went back under the knife and was set to be out for three to four weeks, now it's April and he's still not back, with no word from the club.

Let's just hope he's back soon, rather than still having to use the stairlift he was given after that cruciate ligament damage in Everton last year!

Photo: World Of Good (Flickr)

It will come of no surprise to any of you that London is currently one of the most expensive places to live, not only in the UK but also in Europe. With spiralling house costs, not to mention other essentials like gas, electric, internet and insurance, it seems that us southern dwellers are regularly screwed over in one way or another with costs.
For someone like myself that was originally from Yorkshire, then lived for three years in Newcastle it seems like quite a shock to the system and I will admit, that after just 6 months or so of living here, I am still getting used to it.
But there are some simple things that I have managed to do to reduce the shakes of poverty completely bringing me down. Things like cooking more meals properly with real ingredients, using Compare energy websites to find better deals, buying a bike instead of driving or tubing it everywhere. In fact, once you make a few cut backs you hardly even notice. The best thing is, that most of them aren’t really even that drastic and hardly even affect your way of living. Perhaps it’s just the deep rooted Yorkshireman in me but, I don’t see why more southerners don’t do it.

Image: reccurance

A survey out today suggests that nearly 900 country pubs have closed down in the past year. The British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) have announced the figure, which sees the pubs closing in rural areas.
In a recent poll 82% of country dwellers says a pub is an important part of village life. It is a chance for all the locals to meet up and catch up. It also brings a sense of community spirit.
A call by The National Housing Federation ' backed by the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) and the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) for urgent action to be taken, to halt the decline.
A rise in unemployment and lower household incomes are just some of the factors to blame.