Basildon Life with Mark Crosby

Good Bye MSN! Hello Word Press!

Sun, 03 Dec 2006 16:28:22 GMT

My own website is now my blogging home! This site will no longer be updated. Check out http://www.markcrosby.co.uk/ for future articles.

Christmas Lights Switched On! Total Disappointment!

Sat, 18 Nov 2006 17:37:09 GMT

I was going to cover this event, but unfortunately the lights are worse than usual - I might as well have bought some fairy lights and hung them out of my window and photographed those! :-) Can't Basildon do better than this? Its a total embarrassment!

Celebrity Big Brother winner Chantelle, a local girl who grew up in Wickford and attended Bromfords School switched on the lights, along with Scott Robinson, a local nobody from a rubbish boy band with a bad attitude and no talent... IMHO.

The BBC were there taking pictures - Not even they took any pictures of the actual Christmas lights though - Don't worry, you really are not missing a thing! :-) http://www.bbc.co.uk/essex/content/image_galleries/basildon_christmas_lights_gallery.shtml?1

Bad News about Basildon!

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 09:52:48 GMT

Hi Folks!

I'm sick and tired of hearing all the bad news about the area. I'm also sick of writing about it, so I'm calling out for your help.

We need some good stories regarding the area. I'll write about anything, so long as its not another stabbing, because I don't think its good for the town to have more stories about how bad it is to live in Basildon.

Of course Basildon has its problems, but it has its good bits too, so please folks - send some stuff in, and I'll write about it! :-)

Murder in Laindon - Two men arrested, more details soon.

Thu, 14 Sep 2006 20:26:27 GMT

Two men have been arrested in connection with the murder of a man in Laindon.

The incident occurred near the train station at around 0130 on the morning of Thursday 14th.

The victim, who is yet to be named, was a 41 year old man from East London. Postmortem results confirmed that he had died from several stab wounds.

Police expect to reveal the name of the victim tomorrow (Friday).

More details as they happen.

Basildon Life - First for News

Update: Body Found in Travers Way, Pitsea, Basildon - Another man arrested

Sat, 02 Sep 2006 11:34:03 GMT

A fourth man has been arrested in connection with the murder in Travers Way, Pitsea.

It has also been revealed that the victim was due to appear in court in connection with a case of indecent exposure. More soon.

Update: Body Found in Travers Way, Pitsea, Basildon - 3 men arrested

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 11:34:26 GMT

A total of three men, all aged 17 have been arrested on suspicion of murder.

The name of the body has now been released. Mr. Simon Goddard, aged 32 from Travers Way, Basildon.

Body Found in Travers Way, Pitsea, Basildon - Murder investigation under way

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 01:20:44 GMT

Police were called to a flat in Travers Way, Pitsea, Basildon at 10:10 on Sunday Evening, where a body had been found. The man has not been formally identified, although police are quite certain who it is already.

Formal ID of the body will take place on Tuesday morning. Police are treating this as a murder investigation due to the nature of the injuries.

Anyone who has any information should call Basildon Police on 01268 532212.

Pitsea & Basildon Carnival Locked Out! - Council looses key to main gates

Sun, 25 Jun 2006 14:27:21 GMT

Pitsea & Basildon Carnival Locked Out!

Council Workers Scratch their heads looking for key to gate!

14:50, Northlands Park, Pitsea

The carnival was stuck for a while after council workers lost the key to the park gates, preventing the carnival from entering Northlands Park.

A key wasn't required in previous years, as it used to be easy to get into the park before the new gates and fences were erected.

After a while, some of the carnival floats were redirected to another entrance to the park over in Parkside. Others lifted their floats over the barriers. Most of the carnival floats ended up at a different location to the people who were supposed to be on top of the floats!

Pictures below - watch out for the miserable clown! :-)

Update: Murder in Bockingham Green, Basildon, Essex - body is Richard Zephaniah, who was found in a pool of blood

Thu, 16 Feb 2006 23:50:35 GMT

Updates on murder:

Detectives investigating the murder identified the victim as Richard "Ricky" Zephaniah.

Zephaniah, 39, was found in a pool of blood.

The victim died shortly after arriving at Basildon Hospital.

Police Appeal: Anyone who saw anything to contact Basildon Police on 01268 532212

Hanging In Gloucester Park - man in his thirties, used goal post to hang himself

Fri, 03 Feb 2006 16:25:06 GMT

Parts of Gloucester Park were closed for some time this morning (03 Feb 2006) due to a suicide.

A man in his thirties was found at around 7.30 this morning with a rope around his neck near the football pitch in the park.

The man had used a bin to stand on, and had tied the rope to the top of the goal post.

Whitnesses advised that he must have been there for several hours as he was not in a good condition when they found him.

Murder in Bockingham Green, Basildon, Essex - Two females helping police with enquiries

Fri, 06 Jan 2006 11:15:30 GMT

Police are investigating a murder that occured last night (Early Hours of Friday 6th January 2006) in Bockingham Green, Basildon, Essex. Two females from Laindon have been taken in for questioning by the Police.

It seems like they have closed off access to part of the street, reflected in the attached pictures. Police are standing infront of 51-56 Bockingham Green (mostly flats).

The alleged murder occurred at 52 Bockingham Green.

More details as and when they happen.

Pizza GoGo a NoGo in Basildon

Sun, 20 Nov 2005 19:42:11 GMT

Pizza GoGo! Rubbish service!

A couple of weeks ago, we ordered Pizza from the new Pizza GoGo in Whitmore Way, Basildon. People told me it was a good pizza place, "even better than perfect pizza" apparantly, so I had to give it a go.

Me and a friend of mine named Claire called up Pizza GoGo and ordered a Medium Hawaii. The guy who took the order took our full address including the postal code and told us our pizza would be delivered to us within 20 minutes.

We waited the "20 minutes" thinking we could have ran to the place ourselves in about 60 seconds up Whitmore Way, so nothing could possibly delay our pizza long.

40 minutes later we started getting a little upset, and our stomachs were rumbling away, so we waited until an hour had gone past and Claire phoned Pizza GoGo back up to ask when the pizza was due to arrive.

The guy at the end of the phone told Claire in a broken english accent that he had a different address assigned to this mobile number, and that our order had been delivered to somewhere in Vange.

Strange really, because Its my mobile, I've had the new sim for about 2 weeks so they were obviously mistaken. They advised us that our Pizza would be delivered in about 20 minutes.

Asking if we could get a refund for part of the order (now waiting over an hour for pizza!) the guy offered us a £1 discount for use on a future pizza from Pizza GoGo - we were not impressed - We decided to go to the shop, since it was only a couple of minutes down the road, and we didn't want them to deliver our next pizza somewhere else!

We got there, and the time between our first call to Pizza GoGo and the time now was 1 hour and 20 minutes - yes, I could have cooked a frozen pizza in less time and it would have cost me less than a couple of pounds, and there is this guy asking me for £12 - I hope this Pizza is worth it I remember thinking.

The guy offers us a £1 discount again, and we don't budge - we are not paying that much for a Pizza having waited so long, so he gets the manager - this guy had the most smug grin that I've ever seen. He offered us a £1 discount and some free doughnuts - these doughnuts are free with every order over £10, so we advised the manager of this - he just grined back!

In the end the manager offered us £3 discount and a bottle of coke as compensation. We don't think it was worth buying Pizza from them after all that, but we took the Pizza and it was very average - not a patch on Perfect Pizza in Pitsea!

I'm not going to be ordering anything from Pizza GoGo again after going through this with them.

Custom List: My Links

Sat, 18 Nov 2006 18:07:09 GMT

My Links

Blogs Directory
markcrosby.co.uk
My main website, which is still under development.
Pothedz Couch
Basildon Eye
Satirical comedy site that pokes fun at Basildon - hilarious! :-)
Essex Broadband
My company site.
Bockingham Green
My street site

Custom List: Related Blogs

Sat, 08 Jul 2006 10:55:14 GMT

Related Blogs

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The website of my Journalist Friend
Hayley
Random thoughts from Hoolie!

Custom List: Interesting Stuff

Thu, 01 Dec 2005 13:34:04 GMT

Interesting Stuff

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Next time Earth's magnetic field flips, compass needles will point South instead of North. But scientists can't say when it will occur, and until now they've disagreed on how long the transitions take.
Scientists Gain New Insight into Déjà Vu
Studies on memory and attention, says psychology researcher AlanS. Brown of Southern Methodist University, Dallas, are pointing to the neurological stumbles that produce déjà vu.
Eye Movement and Direction and How it Can Reveal the Truth or aLie
So can the direction a person's eyes are looking reveal whetheror not they are making a truthful statement?