Home office minister Liam Byrne, who has campaigned for road safety extensively, was today convicted of using a hand held mobile phone whilst driving.
In mitigation of his behaviour he said in a letter to the court that he was taking "an important call on a deportation matter"!
I seem to have missed the piece in the legislation that allows for that.
Oh, silly me!
Happy weekend guys :o)
Friday, 2 November 2007
Thursday, 1 November 2007
Wednesday, 31 October 2007
Suddenly it all became clear....
....and life has new meaning!
Ok, ok so I'm about 20 years late but better late than never!
D: "Where is everybody, Hol?"
H: "They're dead, Dave."
D: "Who is?"
H: "Everybody, Dave."
D: "What, Captain Hollister?"
H: "Everybody's dead, Dave."
D: "What, Todhunter?"
H: "Everybody's dead, Dave."
D: "What, Selby?"
H: "They're all dead. Everybody's dead, Dave."
D: "Petersen isn't, is he?"
H: "Everybody is dead, Dave."
D: "Not Chen?"
H: "Gordon Bennett! Yes! Chen, everybody. Everybody's dead, Dave"
D: "Rimmer?"
H: "He's dead, Dave. Everybody's dead. Everybody is dead, Dave!"
D: "Wait. Are you trying to tell me everybody's dead?"
H: "I wish I'd never let him out in the first place."
Ok, ok so I'm about 20 years late but better late than never!
Tuesday, 30 October 2007
Talking of Tilly...
.....well ok I wasn't but I had been a few days back, I came accross this picture today and it just has to be one of my favourites of her 'kittenhood', so for Karen who misses seeing Tilly pictures here she is, aged about 10 weeks and getting to grips with domesticity! :o)
Monday, 29 October 2007
End of a small era
Well not really, that's kind of overplaying my hand but I made a decision yesterday that I have been toying with for a while.....I killed off 'gemmak designs'. It is not longer, it is defunct, it has gone to the big blog landfill in the ether somewhere.
It was quite an important part of my life for a time, I really enjoyed doing it and the income didn't go amiss but I haven't used it since I closed it 18 months ago and I don't see a possibility for my getting back to it anytime soon, so it seemed like time to stop the sentimentality and hit 'delete'.
....and that's what I did.
Gone, the end.
It was quite an important part of my life for a time, I really enjoyed doing it and the income didn't go amiss but I haven't used it since I closed it 18 months ago and I don't see a possibility for my getting back to it anytime soon, so it seemed like time to stop the sentimentality and hit 'delete'.
....and that's what I did.
Gone, the end.
Sunday, 28 October 2007
Double take
Friday evening on my usual mind numbing sit in the parking lane journey via the M25 to Cambridge I stopped, as ever I do, to relieve the boredom and acquire a coffee at a the usual faceless service station. Twice a week I stop there, nothing ever changes, I could find my way to the coffee machine and the bathroom blindfold and Friday held no promise of anything different.
So I headed to the 'ladies', usual comatose state of mind prevalent and on walking out, taking a quick glance in the mirror instead of looking where I was going, I walked smack bang into someone. I hastily apologised for my clumsiness and walked away but as I did so I realised I had seen that face before. I turned round to look again at the victim of my clumsiness, to see her looking back at me...it was one of those moments when one does a double take.....we both realised at the same moment that we knew the other and fell immediately into animated conversation.
The woman in question had been a teenager the last time I saw her, about a 1000 years ago, ok maybe closer to ten but it seemed forever! She had been at university at the time and we worked together when she was on holidays, we had been quite good buddies but when she left and I moved to Scotland we lost touch completely.
So, we stood for maybe an hour catching up to the sound of hand dryers and flushing toilets, too riveted in our gossiping to think of moving elsewhere and eventually parted with an exchange of email addresses and a promise to meet up again soon.
I love it when that kinda stuff happens! :o)
So I headed to the 'ladies', usual comatose state of mind prevalent and on walking out, taking a quick glance in the mirror instead of looking where I was going, I walked smack bang into someone. I hastily apologised for my clumsiness and walked away but as I did so I realised I had seen that face before. I turned round to look again at the victim of my clumsiness, to see her looking back at me...it was one of those moments when one does a double take.....we both realised at the same moment that we knew the other and fell immediately into animated conversation.
The woman in question had been a teenager the last time I saw her, about a 1000 years ago, ok maybe closer to ten but it seemed forever! She had been at university at the time and we worked together when she was on holidays, we had been quite good buddies but when she left and I moved to Scotland we lost touch completely.
So, we stood for maybe an hour catching up to the sound of hand dryers and flushing toilets, too riveted in our gossiping to think of moving elsewhere and eventually parted with an exchange of email addresses and a promise to meet up again soon.
I love it when that kinda stuff happens! :o)
Saturday, 27 October 2007
Sometimes I'm confounded....
......by our laws!
As ever it seems money is the great God and it's not the first time that jail sentences have been handed down that prove to me British justice still has a nasty habit of considering money above life and common decency.
I know there are many aspects to any case, nothing is straightforward and the actual charges bought and the limits of sentencing available to a judge must dictate to a degree the outcome of a case, but it never ceases to offend me on a knee jerk level when on the same day one case, that of an executive stealing company monies has a five year sentence handed down but a thug, who urinated on a dying disabled woman and filmed it on a mobile phone with the intention of uploading it to You Tube, gets only three years incarceration!!!
As ever it seems money is the great God and it's not the first time that jail sentences have been handed down that prove to me British justice still has a nasty habit of considering money above life and common decency.
I know there are many aspects to any case, nothing is straightforward and the actual charges bought and the limits of sentencing available to a judge must dictate to a degree the outcome of a case, but it never ceases to offend me on a knee jerk level when on the same day one case, that of an executive stealing company monies has a five year sentence handed down but a thug, who urinated on a dying disabled woman and filmed it on a mobile phone with the intention of uploading it to You Tube, gets only three years incarceration!!!
Thursday, 25 October 2007
Tilly is two!
Today is Tilly's second birthday.
I never imagined two years ago that I would have to part with her, I still miss her and still think of her every day and I still feel kinda guilty that somehow I let her down...... but for today I'm going to try and concentrate on knowing she is happy and very well cared for in her new home and remebering all her stupidities and funny little cat-ways that gave me such pleasure for the time she and I were a gang of two.
"Happy birthday little Tilly puss".
I never imagined two years ago that I would have to part with her, I still miss her and still think of her every day and I still feel kinda guilty that somehow I let her down...... but for today I'm going to try and concentrate on knowing she is happy and very well cared for in her new home and remebering all her stupidities and funny little cat-ways that gave me such pleasure for the time she and I were a gang of two.
Wednesday, 24 October 2007
Anger management
Sometimes when you are angry with someone, it helps to sit down and think about the problem!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Ok, ok, I know I'm being a particularly bad blogger this week but I just seem to be having one of those muddle-headed spells where anything I want to say kinda gets stuck and I can't get it into words.....and the fact that blogger stole yesterday's post wasn't helpful!)
(Ok, ok, I know I'm being a particularly bad blogger this week but I just seem to be having one of those muddle-headed spells where anything I want to say kinda gets stuck and I can't get it into words.....and the fact that blogger stole yesterday's post wasn't helpful!)
Tuesday, 23 October 2007
Bloody hell fire....
......I just spent an hour typing a post and blogger stole it!
I haven't had that happen for years and I'm somewhat less than chuffed....though maybe it was a blessing in disguise for you guys, I've written more upbeat posts in my time so by the Blogger Gods you have been spared!
I haven't had that happen for years and I'm somewhat less than chuffed....though maybe it was a blessing in disguise for you guys, I've written more upbeat posts in my time so by the Blogger Gods you have been spared!
Sunday, 21 October 2007
I would never....
.....have thought that the day would come when I would feel so disappointed at the result of a rugby match....and nor would I have anticipated that having turned off the T.V. at the final score to avoid the inevitable dissection, I would become embroiled in an hour long discussion on just the same dissection with he who understands the finer details of such things!
I'm not qualified to make a judgement but it seemed to me a pretty good effort by the guys in the red and white and common consensus appears to be that they can be proud of themselves despite the final outcome.
The B.B.C. World Cup blog says it way better than I can.
Hey...maybe Lewis Hamilton can lift our spirits this afternoon.
I'm not qualified to make a judgement but it seemed to me a pretty good effort by the guys in the red and white and common consensus appears to be that they can be proud of themselves despite the final outcome.
The B.B.C. World Cup blog says it way better than I can.
Hey...maybe Lewis Hamilton can lift our spirits this afternoon.
Saturday, 20 October 2007
Shallow? Who me?
For the first time in my life I will be glued, probably along with a whole country of sudden rugby fans, to the match tonight.
I don't 'do' sport but I too have become a victim of the sudden patriotic interest in the World Cup final, in fact, since the semi last weekend I have hardly been able to contain myself waiting for tonight....and let's face it, trys, conversions and all the other technical stuff (that I am attempting to learn almost overnight) aside, if the match begins to wane in interest for we girls there is always the physiological 'aspect' to keep us entertained! ;o)
I don't 'do' sport but I too have become a victim of the sudden patriotic interest in the World Cup final, in fact, since the semi last weekend I have hardly been able to contain myself waiting for tonight....and let's face it, trys, conversions and all the other technical stuff (that I am attempting to learn almost overnight) aside, if the match begins to wane in interest for we girls there is always the physiological 'aspect' to keep us entertained! ;o)
Wednesday, 17 October 2007
The easy option!!
My mother, whilst at some routine appointment today picked up a glossy mag in the waiting room as one does to pass the time and it very pertinently fell open at an article about bankruptcy. This of course interested her, yours truly being an only recently discharged bankrupt herself.
The article was a dairy of a woman's descent into the 'delights' of the state of bankruptcy......I read avidly the tale of woe written obviously by a woman who feels much about the state itself and the process of attaining that state as I did/do. The article included her website address, Ladies in the red which includes a blog, and of course I had booted up my lappy and was there in a flash!
The site is excellent, the girl has a sense of humour (you need it believe me) and I'm sure there will be much more to interest me over time but what really struck a chord with me was one line at the end of a post, a reference to those who tell we bankrupts that it is the 'easy way out'. Oh how right she was in saying it most certainly is not!! I have been told that very same thing by various sanctimonious individuals over the last year and have had more than one conversation with people who consider it to be an easy way out for themselves!
Believe me, if there is anyone out there in any doubt whatsoever bankruptcy is not the answer to your debt prayers, it is not easy and it is not fun and it is not clever!
I promise you it is not, it is not easy filling out the reams of forms one needs to submit to apply, it is not easy when penniless to find the £475 needed for the application, it is not easy to sit in front of a judge, alone in a big courtroom and be questioned and judged, when all you want to do is hide in a corner and cry, it is not easy to have no credit cards for six years, no cheque book or ATM card for six years, to not be able to buy a home for six years, to deal with the stigma (and yes it still exists), to not be able to replace ones car despite it costing more to keep on the road in it's dotage than the purchase of a new one, to have to carry cash (if one has it) for emergencies,(try staying in a hotel overnight if you break down in the middle of nowhere when you have no plastic), it is not fun being unable to buy anything online, even insurances, car tax etc etc. It is not easy having a charge made against your salary, it is not easy losing your assets, fending off often rude and intimidating creditors phone calls up to perhaps ten times daily for months and months on end (even once they are aware they are committing an offence by pestering you) and it sure as hell ain't fun wondering each time you open the door if it's bailiff's.
No sir, it is not easy and it is not the easy way out. It is frustrating, difficult and soul and self esteem destroying......if you are ever tempted to go that route please, if you have any other feasible option, take it!
....and for those that might be tempted to judge, yes I made mistakes, yes I made some poor decisions and yes I had a bit of bad luck but don't tell me I took the easy way out!
The article was a dairy of a woman's descent into the 'delights' of the state of bankruptcy......I read avidly the tale of woe written obviously by a woman who feels much about the state itself and the process of attaining that state as I did/do. The article included her website address, Ladies in the red which includes a blog, and of course I had booted up my lappy and was there in a flash!
The site is excellent, the girl has a sense of humour (you need it believe me) and I'm sure there will be much more to interest me over time but what really struck a chord with me was one line at the end of a post, a reference to those who tell we bankrupts that it is the 'easy way out'. Oh how right she was in saying it most certainly is not!! I have been told that very same thing by various sanctimonious individuals over the last year and have had more than one conversation with people who consider it to be an easy way out for themselves!
Believe me, if there is anyone out there in any doubt whatsoever bankruptcy is not the answer to your debt prayers, it is not easy and it is not fun and it is not clever!
I promise you it is not, it is not easy filling out the reams of forms one needs to submit to apply, it is not easy when penniless to find the £475 needed for the application, it is not easy to sit in front of a judge, alone in a big courtroom and be questioned and judged, when all you want to do is hide in a corner and cry, it is not easy to have no credit cards for six years, no cheque book or ATM card for six years, to not be able to buy a home for six years, to deal with the stigma (and yes it still exists), to not be able to replace ones car despite it costing more to keep on the road in it's dotage than the purchase of a new one, to have to carry cash (if one has it) for emergencies,(try staying in a hotel overnight if you break down in the middle of nowhere when you have no plastic), it is not fun being unable to buy anything online, even insurances, car tax etc etc. It is not easy having a charge made against your salary, it is not easy losing your assets, fending off often rude and intimidating creditors phone calls up to perhaps ten times daily for months and months on end (even once they are aware they are committing an offence by pestering you) and it sure as hell ain't fun wondering each time you open the door if it's bailiff's.
No sir, it is not easy and it is not the easy way out. It is frustrating, difficult and soul and self esteem destroying......if you are ever tempted to go that route please, if you have any other feasible option, take it!
....and for those that might be tempted to judge, yes I made mistakes, yes I made some poor decisions and yes I had a bit of bad luck but don't tell me I took the easy way out!
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