Thursday, 27 January 2005
Virtual 'thorn's in the side'
Some things have a habit of being particularly aggravating, not horrendously terrible just life's little 'bug bears', those things that make you go grrrrr despite one's powers of rationalisation knowing they shouldn't.
Two of these jolly little incidents greeted me this morning.
Firstly, for techie reasons I shan't bore you with, my email gave up the ghost, this required me to install new settings.....which I duly did, courtesy of Wanadoo, only to find that along with the operational stuff I required it also installed one of those aggravating search bars at the bottom of the outlook page. I hate them, if I wanted one I would choose to have one, I do not want one surreptitiously planted there via 'the back door' and I'll be damned if I can get shot of it! Any ideas on means of removal, from those more technically able than myself, would be appreciated.
My second aggravation was an email virus hoax, kindly sent to me by a friend, in all good faith. This hoax concerns a virus reported to arrive under the title 'A virtual card for you' which claims to 'destroy sector zero'. Yeah right! Check this one out here or here for further proof of it's stupidity.
I will never understand what pleasure some probably bright and technically savvy individual gains from these bits of idiocy....probably the fact that they get the likes of me spitting!.....so I won't, I'll stay calm, I won't react, or scream or shout or show any annoyance what so ever.......think calm thoughts......
....not working...arghhhh.....
Two of these jolly little incidents greeted me this morning.
Firstly, for techie reasons I shan't bore you with, my email gave up the ghost, this required me to install new settings.....which I duly did, courtesy of Wanadoo, only to find that along with the operational stuff I required it also installed one of those aggravating search bars at the bottom of the outlook page. I hate them, if I wanted one I would choose to have one, I do not want one surreptitiously planted there via 'the back door' and I'll be damned if I can get shot of it! Any ideas on means of removal, from those more technically able than myself, would be appreciated.
My second aggravation was an email virus hoax, kindly sent to me by a friend, in all good faith. This hoax concerns a virus reported to arrive under the title 'A virtual card for you' which claims to 'destroy sector zero'. Yeah right! Check this one out here or here for further proof of it's stupidity.
I will never understand what pleasure some probably bright and technically savvy individual gains from these bits of idiocy....probably the fact that they get the likes of me spitting!.....so I won't, I'll stay calm, I won't react, or scream or shout or show any annoyance what so ever.......think calm thoughts......
....not working...arghhhh.....
Wednesday, 26 January 2005
Why oh why......
....do blogger have to test our patience to such extremes?
It seems I am not the only one to have suffered unending frustrations of late. Everything takes close to a lifetime to open, if it does at all, I can only comment with occasional success, I am never notified of a comment by email any longer and trying to publish is a feat of endurance!
Just as I had almost given up the unequal struggle and migrated my comments to Haloscan , something I have thus far resisted ( I don't want to lose my past comments), what happened?....I'll tell you....Blogger started to 'play the game' at last!
I won't hold my breath!
It seems I am not the only one to have suffered unending frustrations of late. Everything takes close to a lifetime to open, if it does at all, I can only comment with occasional success, I am never notified of a comment by email any longer and trying to publish is a feat of endurance!
Just as I had almost given up the unequal struggle and migrated my comments to Haloscan , something I have thus far resisted ( I don't want to lose my past comments), what happened?....I'll tell you....Blogger started to 'play the game' at last!
I won't hold my breath!
The world gone mad!
'Going equipped'!
Few can have missed the news story reported over the last few days concerning Sarah McCaffery the young lady from Tyne and Wear who was fined for eating an apple whilst driving. Ms McCaffrey was issued with a fixed penalty fine of £30 for her 'offence' but objected and opted to go to trial, where she was found guilty, fined £60 and ordered to pay £100 costs.
Northumbria police and the CPS spent over £10000 in their endeavours to secure this conviction!
This morning a report has emerged of a man who was fined by Greater Manchester Police for playing his car stereo system too loudly.....apparently the decibel level was only half of the possible full volume.
Doubtless we will be subjected now to a string of such stories from the media, never an organisation to miss the opportunity of 'jumping on the bandwagon' and inflaming popular opinion.
That said I have to admit to being somewhat dismayed by this story.
I have in the main spent a lifetime as pro police and an advocate of our justice system but the case of Ms McCaffery seems utter nonsense. In the first instance I find it hard to accept that eating an apple at the wheel constitutes a serious case of 'not being in control of her vehicle', though I do accept that it is not absolutely ideal and in the second instance I do not understand why, if the local constabulary considered it appropriate to stop this young lady for her misdemeanor in the first place, she was not given a friendly warning. Lets face it....who doesn't on occasion eat/ smoke/ drink at the wheel? The fact that we 'all do it' does not of course make it right but it begs the question why we have not all been hauled infront of a magistrate for such crimes.
Finally, the most appalling result of what was perhaps an over zealous young officers actions, is the fact that the police force in question, rather than handling this case with common sense, then proceeded to spend £10000 of public money in acquiring evidence against this most heinous of criminals to ensure a conviction!
Has the world gone mad?
I truly never thought I would see the day I would utter this opinion but are there not real criminals, the murderers, rapists, armed thugs and drug cartels to attend to? £10000 may well be a 'drop in the ocean' where the fight against such serious crime is concerned but surely securing a conviction against Ms McCaffery was not the most intelligent use of resources.
Common sense it seems was sadly lacking in this instance, the constable who made the initial decision may well have thought in his wisdom he was acting correctly, indeed he was acting within the confines of his remit but was there not a sergeant or inspector etc. 'back at the station' who could have taken action to avert this debacle before the CPS, a helicopter, a spotter plane, a squad car bristling with technology and the courts became so expensively involved?
Well done PC Butler, you should go far!
Tuesday, 25 January 2005
Monday, 24 January 2005
A line in the sand snow
Saturday night around 10.30 I was loitering feeling sorry for myself on the sofa with a mug of hot chocolate when there was a knock on the door. PG and I looked at each other, no one ever knocks on the door here at night, PG stood up grumbling and answered it.
Our visitor was my friend and neighbour, we will call her 'W' for now. 'W' insisted that I put on a jacket, a pair of shoes and go with her.....destination unknown and never mind the cold or the abandoning of my hot chocolate, this was too important!
It was apparent this was not an emergency, rather something of some amusement to her and though I was completely confounded I duly obeyed my instructions and ventured out into the cold night.
We set off in 'W's car, both of us laughing and with her repeatedly telling me "you are not gonna believe what I have to show you"....my confusion was not relieved by this!
Perhaps half a mile from home everything became clear, 'W' stopped the car (there is no traffic here late at night) and infront of us in the road was a very definite line, like someone had 'coloured it in' in a childs colouring book, one side of the line, black tarmac, the other side of the line....SNOW! There was no gradual fading in, it was a hard line, one side it had snowed the other it hadn't!!
To add to 'W's amusement was the fact that the side on which we live was the snow-less side, despite all my forecast watching and wishing the snow had dared to stop just half a mile from us!!! My passion for snow is well known here.
"Look up" she said to me, above our heads was a hard line in the dark sky, one side white puffy snow clouds, the other side, our side...... a clear sky, bright with twinkling stars!
This place we live in may drive me mad in some respects but it offers some amazing sights now and then!!
Our visitor was my friend and neighbour, we will call her 'W' for now. 'W' insisted that I put on a jacket, a pair of shoes and go with her.....destination unknown and never mind the cold or the abandoning of my hot chocolate, this was too important!
It was apparent this was not an emergency, rather something of some amusement to her and though I was completely confounded I duly obeyed my instructions and ventured out into the cold night.
We set off in 'W's car, both of us laughing and with her repeatedly telling me "you are not gonna believe what I have to show you"....my confusion was not relieved by this!
Perhaps half a mile from home everything became clear, 'W' stopped the car (there is no traffic here late at night) and infront of us in the road was a very definite line, like someone had 'coloured it in' in a childs colouring book, one side of the line, black tarmac, the other side of the line....SNOW! There was no gradual fading in, it was a hard line, one side it had snowed the other it hadn't!!
To add to 'W's amusement was the fact that the side on which we live was the snow-less side, despite all my forecast watching and wishing the snow had dared to stop just half a mile from us!!! My passion for snow is well known here.
"Look up" she said to me, above our heads was a hard line in the dark sky, one side white puffy snow clouds, the other side, our side...... a clear sky, bright with twinkling stars!
This place we live in may drive me mad in some respects but it offers some amazing sights now and then!!
The horrid weekend
Harrumph!!
On Saturday morning I woke with the threat of another cold descending upon me, it didn't remain 'descending'for long, it landed full force bringing with it something that felt akin to a grape in my throat and an inability to get warm. The grape rapidly advanced into a grapefruit and the lack of warmth issue became a lost cause!
My arrival at work was accompanied by the unpleasant realisation that I was to spend the following two days stood in a bitter wind, by a doorway who's (theoretically)automatic doors were failing in their duty to detect individuals and duly open or close and consequently remained staunchly open. Add to that, courtesy of the building work currently underway, the heating was broken! The contractors employed to fix such failures do not work on a weekend.....oh happy days!
I do not 'do' cold!
And so we stood, cold to the bone, miserable and huddled in turn around a small fan heater....and we had it good. The poor young souls operating the checkouts could do nothing but sit and freeze. Should we provide them each with a heater the power trips out....more joy!
All day rotas were hastily suggested to send them one by one for a coffee on a continuing rotation but this only worked in part, no matter how cold one is, if there are customers in a queue, or anything vaguely resembling the threat of a queue, then we must remain.
We ran around, we larked about where we could but it was to no avail, we remained miserably cold, a little band of pinched and pale faces met customers who persisted in telling us "it's cold in here today"...........YES, WE KNOW, we are trying our damnedest to ignore it......as they departed for warm and cosy homes!
I am still cold, I can't get warm, I still have a grapefruit in my throat, I think long time immersion in a hot bath is next on my agenda! :o)
On Saturday morning I woke with the threat of another cold descending upon me, it didn't remain 'descending'for long, it landed full force bringing with it something that felt akin to a grape in my throat and an inability to get warm. The grape rapidly advanced into a grapefruit and the lack of warmth issue became a lost cause!
My arrival at work was accompanied by the unpleasant realisation that I was to spend the following two days stood in a bitter wind, by a doorway who's (theoretically)automatic doors were failing in their duty to detect individuals and duly open or close and consequently remained staunchly open. Add to that, courtesy of the building work currently underway, the heating was broken! The contractors employed to fix such failures do not work on a weekend.....oh happy days!
I do not 'do' cold!
And so we stood, cold to the bone, miserable and huddled in turn around a small fan heater....and we had it good. The poor young souls operating the checkouts could do nothing but sit and freeze. Should we provide them each with a heater the power trips out....more joy!
All day rotas were hastily suggested to send them one by one for a coffee on a continuing rotation but this only worked in part, no matter how cold one is, if there are customers in a queue, or anything vaguely resembling the threat of a queue, then we must remain.
We ran around, we larked about where we could but it was to no avail, we remained miserably cold, a little band of pinched and pale faces met customers who persisted in telling us "it's cold in here today"...........YES, WE KNOW, we are trying our damnedest to ignore it......as they departed for warm and cosy homes!
I am still cold, I can't get warm, I still have a grapefruit in my throat, I think long time immersion in a hot bath is next on my agenda! :o)
Sunday, 23 January 2005
The spirit is willing......
....but the body is weak!
I had every intention of blogging my rather horrid weekend this evening, nothing startling I hasten to add, just run of the mill, small time horrid..... it is not to be.
My arrival home found PG firmly ensconced infront of the pc (how dare he?) and by the time I had ejected him, which was but a few minutes ago, my will to do anything other than eat chocolate and sleep had deserted me.
I tried, I logged on.... but the will is still A.W.O.L........ and so I bid you all good night!
Sweet dreams.
I had every intention of blogging my rather horrid weekend this evening, nothing startling I hasten to add, just run of the mill, small time horrid..... it is not to be.
My arrival home found PG firmly ensconced infront of the pc (how dare he?) and by the time I had ejected him, which was but a few minutes ago, my will to do anything other than eat chocolate and sleep had deserted me.
I tried, I logged on.... but the will is still A.W.O.L........ and so I bid you all good night!
Sweet dreams.
Saturday, 22 January 2005
The other side of the hill
It seems that so often on the weekend I blog here about the beautiful sight that greets me on the last leg of my journey to work in the early hours. As I clear the final hill toward town I am met with a stunning vista as far as the eye can see, a seascape like none other I have ever seen.
This morning, despite having woken with (bah!) a cold I managed to organise myself enough to take my camera with me. The sunrise was not a particularly good one and I only had a minute or two to spare, given that a coffee before work was obligatory..... but these pictures might give an impression of why I still love the drive to work!
(Click to enlarge)
Over the hill.
The Northern most bay in England.
This morning, despite having woken with (bah!) a cold I managed to organise myself enough to take my camera with me. The sunrise was not a particularly good one and I only had a minute or two to spare, given that a coffee before work was obligatory..... but these pictures might give an impression of why I still love the drive to work!
(Click to enlarge)
Over the hill.
The Northern most bay in England.
Just because.....
....this picture made me smile and maybe it will do the same for you.
Cheers Magz.
Devon Rex kittens.
Cheers Magz.
Devon Rex kittens.
Friday, 21 January 2005
Help!
Anyone out there good with CSS/HTML??
You might (will) notice my header title is slightly off centre, you will also notice, if you are viewing in Firefox, that the title is split into two lines. Yes, I know it's a small point but I'm a pedantic bag at times and I want it straight!!!
I'm beaten, I'll be damned if I can get it to behave.....please, anyone out there wanna look at my source and tell me where I went wrong??
I thank you.
You might (will) notice my header title is slightly off centre, you will also notice, if you are viewing in Firefox, that the title is split into two lines. Yes, I know it's a small point but I'm a pedantic bag at times and I want it straight!!!
I'm beaten, I'll be damned if I can get it to behave.....please, anyone out there wanna look at my source and tell me where I went wrong??
I thank you.
Friday's feast (32)
Appetizer - What is one quality you really admire about yourself?
I'm honest.
Soup - What kind of shampoo and conditioner do you use?
'Pantene'
Salad - Describe your favorite movie scene. You know, the one that just gets to you every time you watch it.
The final scene in 'An officer and a gentleman', the one where RG carries his leading lady out of the factory she is working in....yeah I know, cheesy but hey, I'm a woman!
Main Course - If you were a veggie, which one would you be, and why?
I am a veggie so I think I'de be me!
Dessert - If you could take a weekend trip within 100 miles of your current residence, where would you like to go?
Either to Edinburgh city centre to spend a weekend doing all the things I no longer get a chance to do as often as I used to, eating out, clubbing, going to the movies/theatre and shopping. Alternatively if I needed luxury and pampering Duns Castle assuming I can 'weekend away' so close to home!
I'm honest.
Soup - What kind of shampoo and conditioner do you use?
'Pantene'
Salad - Describe your favorite movie scene. You know, the one that just gets to you every time you watch it.
The final scene in 'An officer and a gentleman', the one where RG carries his leading lady out of the factory she is working in....yeah I know, cheesy but hey, I'm a woman!
Main Course - If you were a veggie, which one would you be, and why?
I am a veggie so I think I'de be me!
Dessert - If you could take a weekend trip within 100 miles of your current residence, where would you like to go?
Either to Edinburgh city centre to spend a weekend doing all the things I no longer get a chance to do as often as I used to, eating out, clubbing, going to the movies/theatre and shopping. Alternatively if I needed luxury and pampering Duns Castle assuming I can 'weekend away' so close to home!
Thursday, 20 January 2005
Quiet please!
I feel assailed by noise today, everything everywhere has been abnormally noisy and loud. Forget cream cakes, chocolate, a romantic dinner or good sex.... all I crave right now is a little peace and quiet!
Last night the wind returned with a vengeance, speeds of up to 50 mph and gusts over 70 prevailed until mid afternoon today. All night long the windows rattled, the roof banged loudly, slates crashed to the ground intermittently, the loft hatch lifted and dropped with a thud a thousand times and the floor quite literally vibrated.
Parts of dismembered trees, dustbins, boxes, plant pots and all manner of debris flew and crashed around and by 2 am I had given up the unequal struggle that was sleep and took refuge with a cup of drinking chocolate in front of the TV. The wind howled and whistled around the building without end, the street lights swayed an unnerving degree, one positioned worryingly over my car rocked back and forth all night and day and the electricity flickered madly on and off, with far too much frequency.
I managed 3 hours sleep and then braved the elements to get to work........more noise! The wind battered and howled my small car for the entire journey and was 'beautifully' accompanied by the sound of my exhaust, which chose this morning to 'blow'.
My arrival at work I hoped would bring some peace, Thursdays are not generally particularly busy and we no longer have 'musak' droning on....oh how wrong can one be? Somehow it slipped my mind that the store where I work has just begun a major rebuild. We of course trade throughout this, a third of the square footage is behind hoardings at a time, while shopfitters, electricians, plumbers and all manner of tradesmen and women 'do their thing' with hammers, saws, kango hammers, cranes, iron work, brickwork blah, blah, blah. The place was utter bedlam.
And on it went, nine hours of constant noise, of shouting to be heard and of not being able to hear.... and then it was time for home......more wind, more blowing exhaust and 'oh joy', PG had the music channel on upon my arrival, at some unearthly decibel level!
PLEASE...all I want is a a little quiet, to be able to hear myself think, is that too much to ask?
And the wind still blows and the roof still rattles..............
Arghhhhhh!!
Last night the wind returned with a vengeance, speeds of up to 50 mph and gusts over 70 prevailed until mid afternoon today. All night long the windows rattled, the roof banged loudly, slates crashed to the ground intermittently, the loft hatch lifted and dropped with a thud a thousand times and the floor quite literally vibrated.
Parts of dismembered trees, dustbins, boxes, plant pots and all manner of debris flew and crashed around and by 2 am I had given up the unequal struggle that was sleep and took refuge with a cup of drinking chocolate in front of the TV. The wind howled and whistled around the building without end, the street lights swayed an unnerving degree, one positioned worryingly over my car rocked back and forth all night and day and the electricity flickered madly on and off, with far too much frequency.
I managed 3 hours sleep and then braved the elements to get to work........more noise! The wind battered and howled my small car for the entire journey and was 'beautifully' accompanied by the sound of my exhaust, which chose this morning to 'blow'.
My arrival at work I hoped would bring some peace, Thursdays are not generally particularly busy and we no longer have 'musak' droning on....oh how wrong can one be? Somehow it slipped my mind that the store where I work has just begun a major rebuild. We of course trade throughout this, a third of the square footage is behind hoardings at a time, while shopfitters, electricians, plumbers and all manner of tradesmen and women 'do their thing' with hammers, saws, kango hammers, cranes, iron work, brickwork blah, blah, blah. The place was utter bedlam.
And on it went, nine hours of constant noise, of shouting to be heard and of not being able to hear.... and then it was time for home......more wind, more blowing exhaust and 'oh joy', PG had the music channel on upon my arrival, at some unearthly decibel level!
PLEASE...all I want is a a little quiet, to be able to hear myself think, is that too much to ask?
And the wind still blows and the roof still rattles..............
Arghhhhhh!!
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