Saturday 31 October 2015

Most Haunted Live! is back.

After an absence which has been far too long, Most Haunted Live! is back for Halloween 2015.

The crew has changed with many familiar faces missing, but Yvette, Karl, Stuart and Fred Batt will all be there.


Tonight's show is from 30 East Drive, Pontefract, the house which inspired the film 'When the Lights Went Out', this is a location they have investigated before.


The questions we need answering are:

How long will it be before Stuart falls down the stairs?

Who's nostrils will we see up first?

How much will be thrown from off camera?

Now that Cath has left the team, who will get their hair touched?

Who will be wearing the sceptical scarf?

And the big question....

Will there be a horse on the stairs?

So grab a drink, get your Morse code app ready and settle down for two hours of fun.



Sleep tight.

Bohemian Rhapsody is 40 today!

This weekend marks the 40th Anniversary of one of the greatest songs ever - Bohemian Rhapsody.


According to critics, Bo Rhap was too long and too dramatic to ever be a hit, but thanks to Kenny Everett repeatedly playing a reel-to-reel copy on his radio show, 14 times over one weekend, it did become soar to the top of the charts.

The Comic Strip Presents.... used it in The Bad News Tour episode, the subsequent spin off single was produced by none other than Brian May.


In the 90s, the track was used in what was to become an iconic scene in Wayne's World.  This was to become the cause of many a strained neck or two.


When Lee Evans was asked to perform in France he had no idea what to do so created a sketch around, you guessed it, Bo Rhap.


Even The Muppets got in on the act.


With reissues in blue and purple for fan club members, there must be several million copies of the track on vinyl alone.

How many do you have?

Happy Anniversary Bohemian Rhapsody.

Sunday 25 October 2015

Grammar School Expansion - Good or Bad.

In 1998, Labour passed laws banning the creation of new grammars - selective state schools - but allowing existing schools to expand if there is sufficient demand.

In my opinion this heralded the decline in education standards.

No longer were children streamed by ability, the era of the non-competitive-everyone's-a-winner had arrived.

Brighter children were, and likely still are, ignored, the badly behaved were allowed to disrupt classes and the teachers focused on the middle ground.

England is now due to have its first new Grammar for 50 years after an existing school is to be allowed to open an annexe on a new site in Kent

There are some very good Secondary Modern schools out there, but I can only think that allowing the brighter children to attend grammar schools can only benefit the country as a whole.


I know that in previous posts I have bemoaned the fact that I spent 6 years at an Independent Grammar, assuming that I would have turned out differently had I gone to a Comprehensive, but my home life would have been the same so I probably would have still been the miserable so-and-so that I am now.

Let the naturally bright and the children with the desire to do well attend the new Grammars.  Let them excel and stop holding them back!


Friday 23 October 2015

I have changed the name of my blog.

Formerly The Diary of an ACCA Student, my blog is now called Rants, Raves & Random Musings.

I started my blog to document my studies, but it has become less a diary of exams and more a series of rants so I felt that the name was no longer appropriate.

I still need to do some work on the new header, but welcome all to my new (old) blog!