How Sez Sees It

So I am turning 30 soon and it got me thinking about some of the things I grew up with that some of the younger people I know didn't experience. Tamagochis Or rather the cheap versions of them for me. I had one call Bobby the Dinosaur. I also had some robot thing that never evolved but lived forever (until I lost it in Clarks one day) and also I had a Giga Pet but the battery life on it was shit so I got rid of it. I would still like to have a digital pet again though. Those things were life sapping but fun at the same time. Floppy disks We didn't get a home PC until I was 14 but I did use them in school. You had your own floppy disk with your name written on it so you could save all your work on to it. When we got a PC at home we had about a million of the things lying about all over the place. The worst thing is that I have genuinely had people ask me why there were 3D save icons around back when I was a kid. *facepalm* Encarta This encyclopedia...

It is my favourite time of the year! I prefer this time of year to even Christmas. The sun is shining, tennis season is just on the horizon (by that I mean the French Open and Wimbledon are coming up) and to kick start the party is the biggest party in the world - Eurovision! I honestly get sick with excitement every year over Eurovision. I love how camp, kitch, fashionable, accepting, and brilliant the whole thing is. The costumes, make-up, hair, voices, dancers and musicians are all wonderful. It is great to see Europe (and the world) united in this celebration of that great thing that brings us all together...Eurovision. To anyone who has never watched or would like to watch it for the first time you need some background to understand just how important this competition is. I will also explain some of the rules and some of the scoring. Basically, 26 countries in Europe (although I will explain this isn't quite the case in a moment) qualify to take part in the final which i...

I don't celebrate Valentine's Day because it is a sheer coincidence that my fiance and I got together on the 14 February. We were both single at the time and didn't give a flying fart so we just never thought about the actual date until a few days later. For many people Valentine's Day is a day of hell. They are either single and feel worse for seeing all the lovey dovey rubbish going on around them, have to work because they do something like waiting tables and have to see all the other couples when their loved one is at home, or they forget and their partner goes batshit crazy on them. Here are some facts about the day: Saint Valentine was a Roman saint and it has only been a day of love since the Middle Ages. There are actually around 11 other saints with the name Valentine who have saints days on different dates. There may even have been more than one Valentine who died on 14 February. It is actually impossible to say for sure who he was and what he did. Reall...

Gunpowder, treason and plot.' So goes the old rhyme. This weekend there will be many a firework display (weather permitting) up and down the country, but why? In 1605 a plot was uncovered which, if successful, would have seen Parliament and King James I (VI of Scotland), blown up. The plot was to be undertaken by a rebel group of provincial Catholics who were led by Robert Catesby. The idea was to blow up the House of Lords during the State Opening on 5 November and this would kickstart revolt in the Midlands. James I's (VI's) daughter would be installed as a Catholic Head of State. The full list of plotters were: John and Christopher Wright Thomas and Robert Wintour Thomas Percy Robert Keys Thomas Bates John Grant Ambrose Rookwood Sir Everard Digby Frances Tresham Guido (Guy) Fawkes The most famous of the plotters today, after more than 400 years, is Guy Fawkes. Why is it we remember him over the others? Many of us remember building a 'Guy...

Over the weekend David Starkey was quoted as saying that the riots were a part of  'black culture'.  What on earth does that even mean?  He claimed that white teenagers had adopted the black, Caribbean patois and as a result had effectively lessened their chances in life.  He was also banging on about Enoch Powell being right when he originally said immigration would lead to 'rivers of blood'.  I can't even begin to establish how much this angered me.  I mean honestly.  There were a mixture of factors that led to the rioting.  It included; lack of trust in the police, poor education, poor parenting (in a minority of cases) and general opportunism!  It certainly did not seem to me that it was a result of 'black culture'.  In fact you cannot say that when almost all the people I have seen leaving court have been from white households and the ones who have spoken have not done so in that fake Caribbean way.  There have been millionai...