Alan Gandy

Author Archive

I wrote recently after acquiring our new dog – Pepper – about how we were employing the Cesar Millan training methods for the two books we had bought – How to Raise the Perfect Dog and Cesar’s Way.

Here’s a bit of an update…On the whole, with the odd glitch as you can see – it’s working out pretty well. Both of the boys are way better on the lead, and generally behave pretty well together. They do occasionally have issues with each other and get a bit boisterous – but we expected that with them both being dogs.

I’ve read one of the books – must get around to the other – and pretty much watched most of everything he’s done for TV. It works – it really does. Though I do wonder sometimes that he seems to have something very special about him, almost a ‘Doctor Doolittle quality’, that we mere mortals can never hope to emulate. The man has a gift!

…or is everyone else tired of all the ‘get rich quick’ nonsense scattered about the Internet nowadays?

I guess with to much time on my hands the other day (it was my birthday coming the next, so I was winding down a bit) I decided to have a little play and threw together this one page website.

When you spend as much time as I do working on and trawling around the Internet you can’t help but stumble on sites – no matter how much you try to avoid them – all promising to make you rich with absolutely no effort whatsoever on your part. This could be described as my reaction.

Click here to see the site (but not if you might be offended by bad language).

This weekend I’ve been doing some deep water sailing (if that’s what it’s called – what do I know?) with my friend Paul. We went to collect his boat which had been chartered on a one way trip to bring it home.

The view on approach

I’ve been sailing with Paul before off the coast of our little island and really enjoyed it, great fun as a day trip. But I think after this journey I might need some convincing to do a longer trip like this again! Not because it wasn’t fantastic – more due to my propensity to get sea sick!

First night, serious sea sickness (not aided by a fairly heavy night on Friday I suspect), after which I immediately went to sleep in my cabin to awake to the views of the open ocean some hours later.

I wasn’t sea sick again after I woke up the next morning – but spent the rest of the trip living in fear of it coming back. If you’ve never been sea sick you won’t understand just how unpleasant it can be! It sort of takes the shine of what should be a great experience. Read the rest of this entry »

This week I had a ‘moment of clarity’ as alcoholics say – strangely enough after a few glasses of wine. After, well, as long as I can remember I think I might have finally hit on an idea that ticks all the boxes for me…

I never really knew what I wanted to do when I grew up – but I think this might just be my ‘big idea’. In many ways I’ve drifted through my business and working life, not that I can complain, it’s been good to me – I’ve never fallen into the wage slave mentality, I’ve done all sorts of things – some exciting, some not, some lucrative, some not, I’ve had a number of experiences not open to many, and I’ve learned a hell of a lot from the variety and my constant need to change direction… Read the rest of this entry »

We don’t know – but we are about to find out soon, well as soon as we’ve read the books. Every dog owner we know is incredibly impressed with Cesar Millan – and my dad is hooked on the TV show – so – with the recent addition of the new puppy we thought it’s time we knocked Guido and Pepper into shape…

The major problem at the moment is house training – he’s pretty good all round and will sit, stay and come when you want him – not bad with food either – but can he manage to pee in the right place – NO! We were assured by the people we got him off that he was house trained – not sure what their idea of house training is. But I’m damned sure it doesn’t match mine…!

We bought two books How to Raise the Perfect Dog and Cesar’s Way – so I plan to come back to this topic occasionally and report on the progress of the boys as we attempt to make them perfect….

Will the books work – or would they be better put to use beating the dogs into compliance? I’ll let you know….

You might think this is the Guido. But it isn’t – this is Pepper – he is currently on probation as to whether he joins our household. In for a test run so to speak…

Guido is – we think – is a Labrador and Beagle cross (mostly), he looks very Labrador though with a few Beagle traits and the litter he came from apart from him were all marked like Beagles. We didn’t believe it when we first got him 3 years ago but a Labrador Beagle cross is an official hybrid breed called – wait for it – a Beagador. He’s smaller than your average Labrador cross, and a little nervy at times, but great fun, and a lovely natured dog.

This chap is a bit different Read the rest of this entry »

Okay, the heading is a bit harsh I know. But, it’s no secret that I have a bit of an issue with the professional standards and methods employed by Thorpe Park Security (click to read the original post) after my visit last summer. But, I had to laugh this morning when I stumbled on an article from the Surrey Herald about one of their security staff who has changed his name by deed poll to ‘Animal’.

Yes, it’s true – in fact he has gone a step further and changed original name of ‘Stephen Edmunds’ to ‘Animal Stephen Leonidas Floyd Mayweather McManus Edmunds’.

So good to see they are maintaining such a high standard of recruitment since my visit. It must be really hard for them finding security staff with this level of intelligence. I wonder if he has his new name stitched into his imitation Police style Thorpe Park Security uniform?

What a fantastic website!

I’ve got no work done this morning laughing my way through this – it’s a must see website for anyone in the UK. The reviews of various towns around the country are fantastic, highly amusing – and judging from the places I read that I know, filled with more than a smattering of accuracy.

And it’s not only the articles that are funny – perhaps even more amusing are the comments from people defending their little corner of the green and promised land!

I rarely put comments on sites but couldn’t resist having another dig at Thorpe Park Security, where the page described Chertsey as being “One third pikey scum another is full of chavs and chavettes and the remaining minority are pretty decent folk. I guess if that’s the pool Thorpe Park recruitment people have to choose from – it explains a lot!

Hat’s off to whoever did it – fantastic idea and a great read!

If you’ve got half an hour or more to kill Chavtowns is a must read!

Last night I was sat listening to the Muslim prayers – the Salah on television, and it struck me how really quite poetic they are. It reminded me of a time I walked into the Anglican cathedral in Liverpool and heard a choir rehearsing parts of Mozart’s Requiem, which was extremely haunting especially with the choir out of site. I stood and listened for what felt an age.

I’m not religious, I am seriously not religious – I have loathed organised religion since I was capable of free thought. I can’t stand the notion of faith in a higher being, I can’t stand the way it is used to control people, and I really can’t stand that its followers actually believe that I’m the stupid one. But hell, I can give as good as I get on that score. However, I have to admit that the various religions have given the world some things of real beauty in terms of architecture, art, poetry and music. It’s a pity they couldn’t have done the same for society. Read the rest of this entry »

One thing not that few people in my current circles know about me was that I originally did a degree in photography – but never chose to follow it as a career. I’ve taken on the occasional project over the years (usually under duress), and have taught the subject (far more appealing to me than the pressures of professional photography) in higher education both in the UK and US… I still keep my hand in for my own pleasure and amusement and sell the occasional image through photo libraries.

I recently wrote about Geoff  Holt’s bid to become the first quadriplegic sailor to cross the Atlantic having met him a few short weeks ago. Over dinner one evening this came up in conversation – a couple of days later Geoff and his PR company asked me to take the official departure pictures of the crew and the boat to be distributed that day to the press. Read the rest of this entry »