Sunday 7 February 2010

THIS BLOG HAS MOVED...

...To a new home: http://andeatingit2.com/

You will be automatically redirected in a few seconds. If you're not, please click here to be taken to the new location.

Please change your bookmarks and look for our brand new feed!

Thank you for visiting!

Friday 5 February 2010

Toyota Recall - In Car Entertainment Revisited

It was about this time last year that I traded in my lovely old Range Rover for a Toyota.

With all the current problems, I can't help but be reminded of the fun I had in the old girl and, in particular, this little gem:

During the libel trial, the entire court moved out to the car park to watch reconstructions of the alleged sexual act in the front of a Range Rover – once with the central characters showing the impossibility of such an action and then one with two members of the press corps, proving that, if you remove the seatbelt, you provide the headroom – so to speak.


Read more...

For a post every day and the latest information on the Toyota Recall, go to my new domain at http://andeatingit2.com



For this weekend only Ann Summers are offering a £10 discount on selected Rampant Rabbits.


Thursday 4 February 2010

HNT: The Secret of My Success

Looking back, I suppose any popularity that this blog may have achieved has always been down to the appeal of my fabulous arse, which featured whenever I commented.

This is really strange when you consider that I had spent the previous three decades locked into a mindset where I loathed it. But you people seemed to like coming over to have a look at it and spending a short while reading some of the ramblings of my hormonally-imbalanced, testosterone-fuelled, over-sexed brain.

When companies first began to approach me asking how much I would charge to allow them to put a textlink to their site in my sidebar, I was gobsmacked and just laughed it off. But then, I separated from my Husband and I started having to think about money. I needed to set in place some alternative revenue streams so that I didn't have to keep going cap in hand to him to supplement my own meagre earnings.

Accepting the advertisements seemed to be the most obvious thing to do. So, I bit the bullet, stepped into the Brave New World and asked the marvellous AAG to help me to set up my own domain so that I wouldn't have to worry about 'Content Warnings' which took the ads off the front page. *Pauses for a moment to allow the applause for AAG's handiwork to settle down*

*Numpty Alert* What I hadn't thought through was that my old place over at Blogger was actually pretty popular and had accumulated a large number of backlinks over the 2.5 years of its existence. It was these which gave it its value and not many advertisers were terribly keen to invest in a new site with a Page Rank of 0 and very few backlinks. Instead of winding down the old site, I found myself having to run it in tandem, whilst I begged and pleaded with all the wonderful friends on my Blogspot Blogroll to update their links and feeds to the new site - and thank you so much to all of you who responded to my plight so quickly x

It was extremely fortunate for me that the lovely people over at Kristen Archives chose this moment to put the new site up as their Featured Blog. Hopefully, some of my other linkees have received some bloglove as a result of the sudden influx in traffic.

Whilst the result of this has seen the domain's Alexa ranking move ahead of the Blogspot's level of Global 931,080 and United States 455,951 to Global 752,751 and United States 84,317, the data for the number of sites now linking in is not available and so, unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have had much effect on my Page Rank, which has stayed resolutely at 0.

Other sites show the Alexa rating for my old Blogger site at 1,195,636 with a Page Rank of 3 and 19,273 backlinks (the Alexa site itself shows the backlinks to be 123) and the new domain listed as only 2,497,755 with 9 backlinks so it's all very confusing as to which figures to believe and what else I can do to get the new site up to parity with the old.

So, this is the part where I need to beg and plead for a huge favour from my regular Reader and anyone who might have stumbled across my bottom as a result of the efforts of a Truly Lovely Gentleman today.

Basically, what I'm asking is if you would all help me to save my bacon conduct an experiment.

If you link to http://andeatingit2.com in your blogroll and send me an email at havingmycake [at] gmail [dot] com, giving your blog url, then I will link back to you - both here and on the old PR3-ranked Blogspot blog.

Another way to boost the rankings is to link to one of my posts within one of yours. Again, if you let me know what you have done, then I will return the favour on both blogs.

Page Rank's algorithm is based upon how many backlinks you have and the number of backlinks that those who backlink to you have. This means that, if we all help each other, everyone can benefit from a boost to their ratings.

The idea is to see how long it takes to regain my PR3 ranking on the new domain... and return a share of the linky love in the process.

The base we started at on 21st January 2010 was a ranking of 2,497,755 with 9 backlinks and a Page Rank of 0. It would be great to see what sort of movement can be achieved with a concerted effort and how long it takes, so I'm really hoping that you can help me out.

Obviously, if anyone else has any more information on other strategies I can employ, I would be grateful to be educated.

Because, as always, the true secret of any success that I may have lies firmly with you guys x

Please click here to comment over at the new domain.





Magnifying glass picture courtesy of: http://entrepreneurthearts.files.wordpress.com

Tuesday 2 February 2010

Mo Mowlam

I watched 'Mo' last night on Channel 4.

According to Wikipedia:

Marjorie "Mo" Mowlam (18 September 1949 – 19 August 2005) was a British Labour politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Redcar from 1987 to 2001, and served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

Mowlam's time as Northern Ireland Secretary saw the signing of the historic Good Friday Peace Agreement in 1998. Her personal charisma, reputation for plain speaking and fight against a brain tumour led her to be perceived by many as one of the most popular "New Labour" politicians in the UK; a fact reflected in the standing ovation she received when Tony Blair mentioned her name in his speech at the 1998 Labour Party Conference
.

But she was so much more than that. She was a woman in a man's world, who could achieve great things because she was a woman. With a woman's intuition and guile and lack of ego.

Julie Walters played her brilliantly, but the script was also fabulous. I remember those dark days of The Troubles and the bombs in London from my children. I also recall the various characters who appeared on the News, sometimes voiced by the voices of actors because they were not allowed to be heard for real (Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and other politicians from Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA) and sometimes ones you wish were being voiced by actors because their accents were so harsh and their tirades so strident (Ian Paisley).

They were like children squabbling over so many quarrels that went back hundreds of years. Religion and violence and nationality, with some wanting to remain part of Britain and others wanting to be part of a united Ireland, depending upon whether they were Protestant or Catholic. Cities, towns and sometimes even streets were split in their allegiance because of their religion to the extreme that part of Belfast was sectioned off around the Shankhill Road to keep their area separate from the rest.

But it's even worse than that. The Orangemen (Protestants) would hold regular marches along long-set routes that took them into Catholic areas and would insist on being able to follow their time-honoured traditions several times a year, almost deliberately goading the Catholics; and then the Catholics would put up barricades to prevent the marchers. Violence would erupt.

Each side had their own renegade paramilitary groups who committed violent atrocities with bombs, doorstep shootings and kneecappings, even on their own side if they thought someone was being too friendly with the other. I can remember hearing on the News about people being 'tarred and feathered'. It was a horrible time.

When New Labour came to power, Mo was given the job of Northern Ireland. The Government there had been used to the 'no quarter given' policies of Margaret Thatcher and Mo really took all those retrenched and angry men by surprise.

She had no ego. She was calm and firm and committed to achieving what was right, without thought for any danger to herself. For her, peace was the goal. And if, by belittling her, they could forget their differences and join together in some way, she was happy to let them do it.

Her handling of the talks required them to debate and discuss 'without putting their cocks on the table'. This, for me, was the most visually descriptive line of the whole programme because that's exactly how men negotiate. But most men loved her. For her jolly camaraderie and her ability to call a spade a spade. She was not feminine in that flighty, accepted way but one of the boys. She was instrumental in bringing about a temporary ceasefire, as well as being involved in setting the level playing field for the eventual accord that was reached, although her relationship with the Unionists was deteriorating rapidly because they felt that she was too sympathetic to the views of Sinn Fein.

At the end of the day, she was forced out - the programme said by 'Tony Blair's spin doctors' - but, in his speech celebrating the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, Tony, himself, mentioned her by name and she received a standing ovation.

Five months before the Genereal Election of 1997, she was diagnosed with a brain tumour, but insisted on continuing to campaign and have treatment simultaneously. Her cancer went into remission but later returned and she died in 2005.

The saddest part about the programme was her realisation that it might well have been the tumour's effect on her brain that caused her unique character traits and the bubbly charm that everybody so loved. Which part of her personality was Mo, and which part the cancer?

She was an extraordinary, brave and wonderful lady who stands out from all the other politicians in my memory and this programme celebrating her life and her amazing achievement had over 3.5 million viewers, making it Channel 4s most viewed programme since 2001.



Alternatively you could rent it from LoveFilm.










Monday 1 February 2010

Red Star Trek

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Sunday 31 January 2010

Bedtime Stories

Last night, Ruf and I watched The Reader, the film that won Kate Winslet her Oscar recently. It's such a strange tale, but so beautifully acted by all the protagonists.

And it got me to thinking.

I know that I love it when Ruf reads me my bedtime story over the telephone when we're apart.

To be able to just lie there, in the darkness, listening to the sound of his voice, the words filtering into my brain and allowing my imagination to run riot.

So I wondered if any of my Readers would be interested in having me read them a bedtime story from my vast back catalogue of erotica... or even one of my rants.

If this is for you, click on Bedtime Stories here or in the side bar to find out more.

And, if enough ladies are interested, I might even be able to persuade Ruf to become involved...





Or rent the Reader from LoveFilm










UnderRated: Learning F.A.S.T.



I have two friends who have had strokes and both have made a good recovery thanks to the prompt actions of those who were around them.

If you notice any of the symptoms listed, it's time to dial 999.

As mentioned in the recent FAST campaign on television, a stroke acts like a fire within the brain. There are drugs that can be given which will stop the spread of the damage. The FASTer you act, the more of the person you can save.

I think the FAST message bears reiterating here.

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