It is NOT me!

I received an e-mail from Kev today asking if I had set-up an online pharmacy.

Yes. Had me confused for a moment there too.

Turns out someone has purchased a domain called ginger-ninja.net which is obviously almost identical to my own domain gingerninja.net. Not only that, but this individual is also using the site to sell medical items of a somewhat dubious nature. I’ll give you a taster:

Buy Cheap Viagra, Discount Viagra, Kamagra jelly, Kamagra, Apcalis and many more erectile dysfunction treatment solutions by Ginger Ninja!

Does that really sound like something I would do?

You’d think that after 21 years as my best mate, Kev would have known better than to ask. But, I said to myself, maybe Kev had only my best interests at heart? Afterall, a hacker can still get in and takeover a website if the admin has been rather silly with their security procedures. Maybe Kev was simply ensuring that it wasn’t my site and to ensure that I didn’t have a major problem. It doesn’t hurt to ask afterall and he’d me doing me a favour if that is the case.

And then it hit me. There is also always the possibility that Kev was looking for some assistance with his upcoming wedding and was hoping I could supply him with something to keep his ….morale… up on his wedding night? I’m not sure but I really do wonder if supplying little blue pills is above and beyond the call of duty for a Best Man.

Stoned on the DLR

No, not me. Had one of those commute’s this morning where everything worked against me. Not only did I oversleep due to not feeling well (I’ve caught Jo’s cold) but when I got to the station I couldn’t catch the train I wanted as it was running late and I would miss my connection. So I ended up waiting on the platform for an extra fifteen minutes for the direct service and faced the thick end of being nearly an hour late for work.
When I arrived at Stratford, it had become even hotter outside which is great if you are spending the afternoon in the garden but not if you have to wait on the platform for the DLR for another seven minutes. All was well and good at this point as I continued to watch Clerks on my Video iPod, which I had ripped from my DVD copy last night, until we reached a station around All Saints where we just sat there. Apparently the train in front had broken down and we were going to be stuck there for some time.
At this point we get to the subject of this little blog entry. A mouth-breathing young man with a shaved head dressed in a trackie top, jeans and sandals got on and sat next to me. This wasn’t a problem except he reeked of weed and I don’t mean a little. He could have felled cattle with his stench. It certainly made me retch when he first sat down. He’d clearly been enjoying his morning with Mary Jane as he started grinning around the carriage like a buffoon, giggling at the adverts on the walls. Again, more amusing than anything, as I continued to watch Clerks (which he noticed as he peered over my shoulder).
Then he coughed.
Without covering his mouth.
A small wad of phlegm flew out of his mouth and landed on my hand.
I duly pulled a face that looked like I had sucked the world’s largest lemon and glared at him as I looked for somewhere to wipe it off. He just looked at me without apologising, mouth open and eyes vacant.
That was enough for me at this point and I duly got up and moved to the doors to get some fresh air and remove myself from the target zone of his projectile coughing. He then proceeded to yell at the Passenger Agent to get a move on despite the announcement that the train in front had broken down and we would be another ten minues or so, before checking that his lump of weed resin was still in his pocket and returning to his grinning and giggling.
I ignored him and returned to Clerks from the safety of the door well, but not before surreptitiously taking his photo……
Stoner Pic #1 Stoner Pic #2

Hounded out for being ginger

Someone e-mailed me this article on the Sun website.

A shaken family told how they have been hounded out of three homes — for having ginger hair.

Kevin and Barbara Chapman and their four children have been targeted by thugs for three terrifying years.

The youngsters have been verbally abused and beaten up, while vandals have regularly smashed the family’s windows and sprayed hate-filled graffiti on the walls of their council homes.

Only this week, the slogan Gingers are gay was daubed across one wall.

The Chapmans have moved home three times across their home city of Newcastle. But each time, the taunts and attacks have followed them.

Kevin says the local council even said he could dye his kids’ hair to halt the bullying on their estate.

The full-time dad, 49, says the abuse has become so bad that his 11-year-old son — also called Kevin — recently tried to hang himself.

Meanwhile the couple’s ten-year-old daughter Ryelle, and sons Daniel, also ten, and Jordan, 13, have all been badly affected.

Kevin Snr said: It started more than three years ago, when the kids started getting bullied by local lads over their hair colour.

They’ve been punched and kicked and thrown over a hedge. Every time they go out, these gangs have got to them.

We can’t even go to the shops two minutes away. The kids get all their stuff taken off them. You expect people to have a bit of fun about ginger hair, but this is just disgusting.

Dad Kevin, who also has five older kids, said Kevin Jnr got a black eye in the street last week.

He added: It’s shocking, he’s never even seen a life yet and he’s been driven to try suicide.

It was great when we moved home, but then we were spotted again. It seems there are a dozen families with relatives in each area. I was shocked when the council recommended hair dye.

Barbara, 44, who is separated from Kevin, said: It’s not fair on the kids putting up with this.

Newcastle City Council said housing staff were aware of the abuse — but denied suggesting hair dye.

A spokesman said: Mr Chapman suggested to one of our people he was going to dye it, and they said, You could always do that. But it wasn’t a suggestion.

Oh, this made me so very angry, especially as someone sent it to me thinking it was funny! I was bullied at school because I was ginger, slightly chubby, wore classes and wasn’t particularly good at games (especially football) and so this story tweaks an emotional response from me.

I partially blame Catherine Tate (who is ginger herself) and the current crops of comedians who have latched onto ginger as the new and acceptable form of racism. It only takes Am I bovvered? teenager Lauren from Tate’s show or a joke to me made in Little Britain for the playgrounds to be awash with this abuse — exactly as it was for my generation with Blue Peter and the late Joey Deacon.

If the family were being targeted because they were black, asian, jewish or muslim then the police would do something about it, but because it is the colour of their hair it is ignored.