It seems to be every other day that there is a Ryanair story in the news and another reason not to fly with them. There are plans to charge people to use the toilets on the plane – £1 to spend a “penny”.

The chief executive Michael O’Leary tried to explain the reason behind it saying nobody “has got on board a Ryanair aircraft with less than a pound” and “We’re all about finding ways of raising discretionary revenue so we can keep lowering the cost of air travel.”

He also said its the same as paying 20p to use the toilets in Liverpool St. train station. However, on the plane you have no choice. I know its only £1 but it just seems like a way of forcing people to pay more money. They will have to spend money to add the coin-slots and at the end of the flight they are still going to clean the toilets (you hope!).

Someone from Which? Holiday has commented and said  “It seems Ryanair is prepared to plumb any depth to make a fast buck and, once again, is putting profit before the comfort of its customers.” “Charging people to go to the toilet might result in fewer people buying overpriced drinks on board, though – that would serve Ryanair right.”

Easyjet have said they have no plans to charge people to use their toilets on the plane.

Update: Turns out he was “only joking” and he wont be charging people to use toilets on the plane. This hasnt stopped people coming up with other suggestions on what he can do to save money such as charge for oxygen masks & to use emergency exits.

A few days ago it was announced that Ryanair was to provide a service so people could talk on mobile phones while in-flight on the plane. Loads of people seemed to think it was a terrible idea. It personally would put me off flying with Ryanair.

Now there is another reason added to this. It seems to people in charge of Ryanair – or certainly the spokeman and a “staff member” – doesnt think much of people who blog.

Web developer Jason Roe thought he’d discovered a flaw in Ryanair’s website while booking a flight, and blogged about how it seemed that users could book a flight for a charge of ‘0.00′. Someone commented on his post (under the name “Ryanair staff”). (Travolution looked into it and the IP address of “Ryanair Staff” could be traced back to Ryanair HQ):

“jason! you’re an idiot and a liar!! fact is!

“you’ve opened one session then another and requested a page meant for a different session, you are so stupid you dont even know how you did it! you dont get a free flight, there is no dynamic data to render which is prob why you got 0.00. what self respecting developer uses a crappy CMS such as word press anyway AND puts they’re mobile ph number online, i suppose even a prank call is better than nothing on a lonely sat evening!!”

(I dont know what this Ryanair staff member has a problem with Wordpress – its one of the most popular blog software out there, I use it and many many other people do).

Jason Roe replies and it goes back and forth a few times. You can read it all either on Jason Roe’s blog or on the Guardian web site.

No matter whos side you are on, what the Ryanair spokesperson has said isnt really the best PR! Here is what the spokesperson said:

“Ryanair can confirm that a Ryanair staff member did engage in a blog discussion. It is Ryanair policy not to waste time and energy corresponding with idiot bloggers and Ryanair can confirm that it won’t be happening again.

“Lunatic bloggers can have the blog sphere all to themselves as our people are far too busy driving down the cost of air travel.”

Unbelievable!!

Melanie C, one of my favourite “pop singers”, has given birth to her first child – a baby girl they have named Scarlet. It was announced on her web site. The message read: ‘Melanie C gave birth to a beautiful little girl at 4.10pm on Sunday 22nd February. Both mum and baby are doing well.’

She has been the most successful solo career and is the only female artist to have a number one as part of a quintet, quartet, duo and as a solo artist. She announced she was pregnant back in last August and said she would “need to take some time off to be a mum but, before you know it, we’ll be back” with a fifth album. Looking forward to hearing her next album!

Congratulations Melanie and Thomas!

Ryanair has become the first airline to offer in-flight mobile phone service on some routes across the UK.I think this is a terrible idea. Who wants to be on a flight, your trying to relax and enjoy the flight and some idiot is talking loudly right next to you. We all know people talk louder than normal when on the phone. You get this on buses (apparently since I dont get buses). On trains similar things can happen but on trains you do get “quiet carriages”.

Its only UK flights at the moment but this is where it all starts. If its a success then I am sure other airlines will start doing it and for longer flights. Currently its on 20 planes and the plan to upgrade its 170 plane fleet. Its not cheap to use the service. Calls will cost between £1.50 and £3 per minute, e-mails from £1 to £2 and texts about 40p.

(On some planes for Virgin America they offer Wi-fi which is different and they have actually banned any sort of Voip i.e. you cant go and start using Skype – and annoy passengers with all your loud talking).

Please dont let this happen!! This is one thing which will put me off flying Ryanair.

Well the Brits are over for another year. It seems most people thought it was “OK”. Some people wanted more “rock and roll”, a bit of passion, some ppl wanted something to go wrong just to make it more “real”. There were some good performances and some performances which just didnt work. (I was tweeting on Twitter while watching it, if you want to see my random comments about the Brits – @andrewyee)

First on was U2. I am not the biggest U2 fan so may be biased but it didnt really work. Also, as Chris Moyles has pointed out they shouldnt really have performed since the song isnt even released now (or maybe just??) and the Brits is for the previous years (12 months) music. They were not even nominated for anything! Will Brits 2010 have U2 up for several awards including one for this song/album??

I thought Girls Aloud and Coldplay were really good. Kings of Leon were good too. I was looking forward to seeing Take That. They performed in a “spaceship” high up above the crowd and then slowly it lowered. It looked good BUT they mimed! Also they are were wearing specsaver style glasses – what was that all about??

TingTings I thought were good – not sure if it quite worked with Estelle though. Pet Shop Boys were OK. They have some catchy songs. Lady Gaga sang with them and stood like a teapot?? Whats with the pink wig? Brandon Flowers was good What was the point of Lady Gaga – also why was she on. Shes had one hit??

As usual most of the award presenters were abit “off” with them either reading off a script, not realising when to talk, not being funny etc. Alan Carr was very funny and it was good to see Natalie Imbruglia! Nick Frost presented an award but didnt really make an effort!! I like him as an actor – very funny but he could have dressed up a bit!! Looked like they dragged him off the street. He said he didnt like live music – if he has being sarcastic it didnt work. The Hoff also presented an award – The Hoffs a legend!

The winners: Duffy won 3 out of a 4 awards although she needs to get better with her acceptance speeches. I have not heard her album but maybe I should now. The Best British Male was won by Paul Wellor????!? WTF. What has he released this year?? Its like the Brits of “yester-year” when Annie Lennox won it all the time when she hadnt had any chart success that year.

The best international female was won by Katy Perry. I personally wanted Pink to win but Katy Perry is a well-deserved winner.

Another thing about the Brits I wasnt too keen on was the set. It was like they were trying to achieve the Glastonbury them but it looked tacky. The presenters of the Brits (James Cordon, Matt Horne, Kylie) overall didnt work. James and Matt’s jokes were not funny, Kylie overall did quite well. The only joke that worked was right at the start when doing “Cant get you out of my head” with James and Matt dressed up as dancers in the background. Also James seemed to disappear for ages leaving just Matt to present (and for some reason keep having a go at Craig David???)

Liked at the start when the camera cut to ppl in the crowd who looked bored. Problems with sound I think in O2 arena as some presenters didnt seem to know when to talk etc.

One of the strongest toughest awards was Best British Group. Girls Aloud, Take That, Coldplay, Elbow, Radiohead. Wanted Girls Aloud, Take That or Coldplay to win. Elbow won – at least it wasnt Radiohead! Its well deserved though as they have been around for ages!

Kanye West – best international male. Not modest is he!! He said Barack was best inter-racial male and he was the best male. (Seemed to have a lot of teeth in his mouth).

Girls Aloud won the best single album – there first ever Brits (after 6 or 7 years). About time after all the success they have had.

One final thing. How can Coldplay have the biggest selling album last year and not win anything?? (They were up for 4 awards).

It seems to happen every couple months but a kid from somewhere in the world is called the next Zidane/Ronaldo/Maradona……

The latest is a 6 year old boy called Madin Mohamme who is being called “the next Zidane”. Hes originally from Algeria (like Zidane’s parents who are of Algerian descent) and his family moved to France when he was 3.

Check out the video:

Sometimes this country really annoys me! Almost £2million of taxpayers money has been spent to build 6 “posh” bungalows which will house the gypsies who previously lived on the land – for the Olympics. Why on earth spend so much money building (what look like) pretty nice bungalows. They could have housed them surely somewhere else – maybe kick out those squatters from those posh houses in London – at least the gypsies would be paying some money!!!

The gipsies will be charged £104.66 a week rent plus £91.23 a week to park a caravan on the drive. Just over £400 seems rather cheap for a 3 bed spacious bungalow!

Its just ridiculous that this country would spend taxpayers money to unnecessarily!

The Simpsons, which has been on TV since 1989, is now showing in HD. Also, on Sunday a new opening main title sequence was shown – the first significant change since it started back in 1989.

The opening sequence of the Simpsons is always a bit different with the most obvious being what Bart writes on the blackboard and how the family sit on the sofa.

Check it out:

I went to the Twestival charity event in Manchester tonight AKA MancTwester. The event was held in The Living Room. All proceeds went to the charity Charity:Water. The charity auction includes items such as a Wii, ipod touch, champagne meal and “money cant buy items” such as a “journalist for the day” with the Manchester Evening News.

Shockingly, in the year 2009, 1.1 billion people on the planet don’t have access to safe, clean drinking water. That’s one in six of us. At the last count Manchester Twestival raised £3,500!!

If you dont Twestival is organized 100% by volunteers in cities around the world and 100% of the money raised from these events will go directly to support charity: water projects. Some of the cities holding Twestival events include Hong Kong, Sydney, Dublin and New York. It all started back in September 2008 when a group of Twitterers based in London decided to organise an event where the local Twitter community could socialise offline, meet the people behind the avatars, have a few drinks and raise money for a homeless charity. Most of the event was organised in under 2 weeks via Twitter and the combined talent and financial support of the local “Twittersphere”. The Manchester Twestival event was organised by Katie Moffat (@katierocket)

I took a few photos which are on Flickr. You can read more about it on the MEN blog and also a video with Katie.

A couple days ago it was the Grammys in the US. Not normally bothered about it but this year Blink 182 were back together presenting an award. Blink 182 are one of my favourite ever bands and they split back at the start of 2005. They are back together and will be recording a new album and touring again.

It seems like the catalyst for this re-union was the plane crash Travis Barker was in a few months ago. It seems they realised life is too short…. On the official Blink 182 web site it says:

“Hi. We’re blink-182. This past week there’ve been a lot of questions about the current status of the band, and we wanted you to hear it straight from us. To put it simply, We’re back. We mean, really back. Picking up where we left off and then some. In the studio writing and recording a new album. Preparing to tour the world yet again. Friendships reformed. 17 years deep in our legacy. Summer 2009. Thanks and get ready…”
- Blink-182

They split up at the start of 2005. I actually saw them in concert on 3rd December 2004. There last ever concert was on the 16th December in Ireland.

Heres a video of them presenting the award at the Grammys:

Heres the interview after presenting award: