All Entries In General Category

This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.

It's been a little under 3 weeks since my last post and things seem to be progressing okay in the aftermath of the floods. There are still a number of bridges closed, awaiting inspection, and diversions continue to be in place. The army have built a temporary footbridge in Workington upstream of the one that was destroyed in the floods. This has gone someway towards helping to reconnect the two halves of Workington. Workington Bridge remains closed and will eventually have to be demolished. Rumours suggest that a temporary road bridge linking the northern reaches of Workington back to the southern half of town won't occur until the summer and a permanent solution could be a couple of years away.

A temporary railway station has been built about a mile or so north of the river and currently travel by train between Workington, Workington North, Flimby and Maryport is free; although this will change in the New Year. Tesco are building a temporary Metro store not far from the temporary Workington North railway station. This should be open by Tuesday and may end up being in situ for about 3 years. Natwest have set up a mobile bank that visits Seaton and Northside twice a week. Emergency GP clinics are currently running out of Northside Community Centre and Firth House, Seaton. Ford UK have loaned a minibus to the Community Centre and Malcom Wilson's M-Sport have been kind enough to pay the insurance for it. The Community Centre are running a Tuesday service into Workington for residents north of the river and are also running a service to Asda in Carlisle on Thursdays.

Finally, on a personal note I turned 40 on 24th November and celebrated by visiting Old Trafford with my brother-in-law, nephew and friend. We went to see Manchester United vs Besiktas; although, a much changed United side lost on the night. I have also recently been made aware of my Open University course results. I got an 89 for my T175 TMA/CMAs and a 74 for the ECA; that's a Pass. I also got a 92 for my M150 OCAS/OAS which is also a Pass. That means I can add a Certificate in Information Technology and Computing to my CV and am 1/6 of the way through my degree...

Back in March 2008 I decided that I had had enough of getting Spam emails and ended up setting up extra email accounts on my domain account to help filter spam out. Anyway, when I built the new PC I moved from 32bit Windows XP SP3 to 64bit Windows Vista Ultimate SP2 and will eventually move to 64bit Windows 7 Ultimate when it's finally released. As a result of the move to Vista I dropped McAfee Total Protection and started using the beta of Microsoft Security Essentials; even though I'm not actually in a qualifying country.

I've been really happy using MSE except for one little problem; Spam. There is no Antispam capabiltity built into MSE. To combat spam I have downloaded and installed Comodo Anti-Spam; mainly because it's free. However, this has resulted in my email package no longer filtering spam correctly because CAS runs separately from my email client; unlike McAfee which integrated seamlessly into my email client. Anyway, as a fix I have deleted the sub-accounts from my domain email and have set up an email forwarder to send all unqualified email to my Googlermail account. This appears to have done the trick and I'm really well pleased with the way googlemail handles spam.

Today was the Whitehaven Musical Festival and Chrissy's daughter was entered into the poetry recital this morning. She's had a birthday since she won at Workington in November and was entered into the slightly older under 8s class. She recited 'My Little House by J. M. Westrup' and was selected as winner in her age group; out of a total of 15 entrants. A lot of the entrants were very good and I think she won mainly because she recited the poem in a nice, clear voice and took her time with it.

I spent most of this last weekend in Folkestone with Alley; first time since he and his wife split. My main reason for staying was so that I didn't have to drive all the way into the heart of Norfolk and then all the way back home on the same day. I'd gone to Norfolk to drop some friends off for a 2 week boating holiday. I'm picking them up again on the 19th. Not looking forward to that. I have to leave home at about 3am to pick them up at 9am and then take another 6 hours or so to drive back home. Although I may insist on a couple of hours break before returning home.

Left home at about 8:30am, arrived in Horning about 3:30pm, left at about 4pm and arrived in Folkestone at about 7pm or so. Anyway, didn't really get up to much at Alley's; not enough time really. We spent most of Saturday evening just sitting relaxing, watching TV. Watched th Malaysian Grand Prix on Sunday morning before taking Alley's kids to Tali's flat after lunch. I had the largest kebab I have ever seen on Sunday night whilst watching "You Don't Mess With The Zohan." I must have seen it about 4 or 5 times now but it was Alley's first. It really is a very good comedy.

Left Alley's just after 10am on Monday and arrived back home more or less bang on 7pm. Then took my sister shopping. Haven't really done much today either. Took Tricia her new laptop; took Dad to the Doctor and bought myself some new XBox 360 games that I will eventually get round to playing.

After making just over 500 posts in 2008 I have seriously slowed down so far this year. This is only the 5th post I've made in March. There's not really been that much to blog about. I've either been busy, been studying or been ill. I've had 3 migraines in the last 4 weeks. Have started helping out a couple of friends and have managed to get the first TMA finished and submitted for my M150 course. Need to really try and knuckle down and get caught up with T175. I'm about a week or so behind where I really should be but am confident I can pull it around over the coming weekend.

Other than taking Dad to see the Nurse this morning; to get some stitches removed from his thumb, I've spent vitually all of today baking. I've made 5 trays of Mince Pies, 6 trays of Jam Tarts; both Strawberry and Lemon Curd flavours, and 7 trays of Scones. The last lot of baking that I did went down a treat.

I am now going to have a nice relaxing couple of hours sat in front of the TV.

Our usual Saturday rpg session has been cancelled this weekend. We completed Paul's Sabbat Vampire game last weekend and after a brief discussion Colin agreed to run his Valkenburg Foundation Werewolf game in the New Year.

We're still going to get together today and have a DVD-a-thon, where as usual we will take it in turns to select a movie to watch. As is usually the case I'm planning to take one or two along from my own collection.

Here's hoping that you all have a happy and enjoyable festive holiday season. I'm currently sat enjoying one of my own home-made mince pies in the quiet and calm that will be shattered in the next couple of hours by the arrival of the rest of the family.

Just finished roleplaying but I now need to go and do a wee bit of late night shopping. Whilst I've been doing some errands for Geoff and Chrissy today both Michael and Catherine have been out to get some shopping. However, neither of them got any dog food and Petra has had the last tin that we had in the house. Thankfully, the local(ish) Tesco is 24 hour.

I've been out all day today and it's been cold. I got all the way to Egremont and filled up the car before realising I had left my wallet at home. Luckily, the garage attendant was kind enough to accept my mobile phone as collateral until I returned from popping back home to collect it. I had a small panic when I got home because it wasn't where I normally keep it. I found it eventually. Popped into Whitehaven around lunchtime before returning to Egremont. I've spent the evening at Geoff and Chrissy's. We had a rather nice Ham and Pumpkin Soup for tea.

It's been cold all day today; although, with it being November 30th, that's not such a surprise. I spent this afternoon watching the Manchester derby before watching the Chelsea-Arsenal game. I'm now going to try and catch up on some of the American TV that I've slipped behind with. Later, the Chicago Bears visit the Minnesota Vikings in the Sunday Night NFL game. Oh, and apparently, my cousin's PC is starting to play up. Another PC I'll need to look at sometime this coming week. Joy!

I've spent most of today in Egremont; doing very little as it happens. We had a nice pumpkin & beef stew with brown rice for tea before I had to leave. Prior to coming home I had to pop to Whitehaven to drop some milk off for my sister and to pick up her PC, which I am reinstalling for him tomorrow. On the way home I popped into Scoot's to partition the hard drive in his new PC for him and to try and solve the lack of sound problem he was having with DVDs. It would appear that the version of Cyberlink PowerDVD that he got with the new PC doesn't have the Dolby Codec bundled with it. As a result, he was getting no sound on DVDs. I've changed his system setup so that it defaults to using Windows Media Player for now.

I turned 39 today.

However, as Mondrak pointed out I'm only a day older than I was yesterday. Whilst his comments are factually accurate, we tend to consider ourselves as gaining an extra year in age on our birthdays. If somebody had asked me how old I was a couple of weeks ago I would have replied that I was 38, and maybe would've mentioned that I would be 39 in a couple of weeks. But, if somebody had asked me in the summer I would have responded with just the 38 answer, and wouldn't have mentioned that I would be 39 in November unless specifically asked.

However, ask the same question of one of my nephews and they would've said 7½, 9¾ or whatever their actual age was. The extra ½, ¾ or whatever seems to become less important as one gets older.

Also, as a youngster I tended to look forward to my birthday with excitement and whilst I never really received extravagent gifts, I was always fairly happy with what I did receive. As I've gotten older I tend to just look forward to the day as a means of recognising my slow passage into and eventually beyond middle-aged. I still enjoy receiving messages of congratulations, well wishes and birthday cards. However, I am now well past the age at which I expect and look forward to receiving presents. As a family we have all moved away from buying presents for the adult members and instead tend to put a lottery ticket or two into each card. It's not much, but you never know. None of us have ever won anything substantial as a result but there have been a few small wins.

Looking back on the last year of my life I have come to recognise that making stupid decisions result in consequences. I made a stupid decision in October 2007 that cost me my job. I was fired just 3 days before my 38th birthday. Now, here we are, a little over a year later, and I am still lokking to get back into employment. It's not been through a lack of trying. I have made a significant number of applications and have had, what I considered at the time, to be a number of fairly good interviews. I have even had one or two exceptionally good interviews. However, none have resulted in a job offer. The best I managed was to be included in a final shortlist of 3. Looking back, the decision I made at the end of October last year was probably not my finest hour and I suppose if I had to make the decision again I would probably think hard about it. However, after considering everything, the problem is that I would probably still have made the same decision that I did last year.

As I said, older, not wiser!

Mondrak just tagged me on his blog. Anyway, the idea is to write 16 things about yourself, and then tag 10 people afterwards saying why they are tagged; and you can't tag someone who's tagged you.

Here goes:

1. I have more than slight OCD tendancies. My CDs, books and computer games must be in order. It drives me to distraction if they aren't. If I see something out of place I must correct the error.

2. During my school years I once scored 95% on a Physics exam and came top of the year at Home Economics. I used to bake every weekend with my mother whilst growing up.

3. My favourite tipple is Jack Daniels and either Diet Coke or Pepsi Max. In the past it used to be Pineapple Bacardi Breezers and before that it was Rum and Coke. I'm also very partial to particularly good Single Malt Scottish Whiskeys. If I have to drink pints I would prefer Belgian, not UK brewed, Stella Artois, Grolsch or Turborg.

4. Although I don't consider myself a Star Wars fan I have watched all 7 movies with varying degrees of enjoyment, and am currently enjoying the animated Clone Wars series. I much rather prefer Star Trek.

5. Tasha, my dog who died earlier this year, was named after the Star Trek: TNG character Tasha Yar. Amazingly enough, one of my friends, Roy, named his dog Tasha at about the same time. We hadn't discussed it beforehand.

6. I have a very self-effacing, almost shy, personality and dislike meeting new people. However, most of my really good friends I have known for a very long time. Even though I'm still under 40 I have a number of good friends that I have known for more than 20 years and a couple that I have known for over 30.

7. I grew up listening to Queen, Blondie, Bruce Springsteen and Abba. Even though my main tatstes are now much heavier I still love listening to Queen and am in fact listening to Freddie Mercury at the moment.

8. I love trivia and have even appeared on a TV Quiz Show. The show was 15-1. I was awful and got knocked out in the first round.

9. I collect Cows and have over 50 fluffy/soft toys as well as a collection of mugs, little figurines and other paraphenalia.

10. All the PCs I have owned over the years have all been self-built. I have never bought a ready-built system. I currently own 3 full systems and a laptop. My first PC was put together from parts I bought from CCL Computers; a company I still use today.

11. I am the oldest of 5 children. My mom was the youngest of 7. I have 2 younger brothers, Douglas and Jonathan, and 2 younger sisters, Sharon and Catherine. I get on fine with both sisters and Jonathan. The elder of the two brothers I haven't seen or spoken to for a few years. This does not cause me any concern and in fact all our lives are better for the lack of contact.

12. Growing up, I had 2 dreams; neither of which have come true. I wanted to be a professional footballer, but serious injuries to my ankles and knees scuppered that dream. Although, in truth, I probably would never have been good enough. My second dream was to be an astronaut.

13. I'm superstitious and amongst other superstitions, I will not walk under a ladder if I can help it. However, I don't have any hangups about the number 13 and rank it as one of my 3 favourite numbers alongside 3 and 7. In fact, I finally passed my driving test on Friday 13th.

14. I'm an avid sports fan and although I support particular teams I will still watch most sports regardless of the teams or individuals involved. As an example, 3 of the best football games I have ever watched didn't involve my favourite team.

15. Coming from a relatively poor background I've never had huge sums of money and have rarely travelled. In fact, I've only ever been abroad once in my life; a school trip to Germany when I was 14. I would love to visit Egypt, Calgary, Boston, Chicago and New York. However, I doubt I ever will.

16. I've just registered to do a degree with the Open University. I had originally thought of studying towards a BSc in Computing and Telecommunication Technologies but have decided that I'm going to study towards a BSc Open Degree instead. This leaves the choice of courses and modules more in my own hands and means I have more freedom to study areas that interest me more, such as Astronomy and Forensics. Although, I intend to stick to a core of Computing modules.

Tagging:

1. Chrissy. I've become platonically closer to Chrissy over the last six months to a year and would be interested to read what she had to share.

2. Geoff. Chrissy's husband comes across as an enigma at times.

3. WrongMark. Mr Adams tends to be forthright in his views. It'd be interesting to see what he would share.

4. Colin. One of my regular weekend roleplaying buddies must have stories to share.

5. mcphee. The amount of things he has been must be approaching legendary status.

6. PickledPixie. Pixie is a very private individual. I doubt he would share, but it would make interesting reading.

7. Mojo. Another private individual. There's bound to be things we don't know.

8. Kelly. Probably my best friend in the entire world. She's the person I would ask to be my best 'man' if I ever got married.

9. Pewari. Life with 2 small kids isn't all she is about and she is bound to have some interesting facts to share.

10. Wil Wheaton. Wil keeps a blog and growing up in show business must have been interesting. Although, I doubt he reads my blog.

I took the car in for it's 2nd annual service this morning. Since the service was going to take a couple of hours, they were nice enough to give me a courtesy car. It was a new Vauxhall Corsa and although it was handy I wasn't impressed with it. I can't even put my finger on why I didn't like it.

Anyway, the Lacetti needs to get the spark plugs changed and the rear wiper also needs replacing. They need to order those in and will get back in touch with me. I was also advised to take it along to Kwik-Fit to get a puncture in one of the rear tyres repaired and to get one of the front tyres replaced; due to wear. I got the puncture fixed but unfortunately will have to go back tomorrow to get the front tyre replaced. They had no suitable tyres suitable in stock and are having to get one in from another local Kwik-Fit.

I also got hold of a PC copy of Need For Speed Underover today and was pleased to see that they've ditched the Pro Street style gameplay and gone back to the Underground, Most Wanted and Carbon style of game. I've only played it for about 30 minutes or so and can say that I'm fairly pleased with it so far. I will probably also get hold of the 360 version sometime in the future; although that may be as a used game for about £15-£20.

Fifty things you might not know about President-elect, Barack Obama:

• As a teenager he took drugs including marijuana and cocaine
• Daughter Malia's godmother is Jesse Jackson's daughter Santita
• He and Michelle made $4.2 million (£2.7 million) last year, with much coming from sales of his books
• He applied to appear in a black pin-up calendar while at Harvard but was rejected by the all-female committee.
• He ate dog meat, snake meat, and roasted grasshopper while living in Indonesia
• He can bench press an impressive 200lbs
• He can speak Spanish
• He carries a tiny Madonna and child statue and a bracelet belonging to a soldier in Iraq for good luck
• He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics
• He doesn't drink coffee and rarely drinks alcohol
• He drives a Ford Escape Hybrid, having ditched his gas-guzzling Chrysler 300
• He enjoys playing Scrabble and poker
• He has his hair cut once a week by his Chicago barber, Zariff, who charges $21 (£13)
• He has read every Harry Potter book
• He has said many of his friends in Indonesia were "street urchins"
• He hates the youth trend for trousers which sag beneath the backside
• He is left-handed - the sixth post-war president to be left-handed
• He keeps on his desk a carving of a wooden hand holding an egg, a Kenyan symbol of the fragility of life
• He kept a pet ape called Tata while in Indonesia
• He owns a set of red boxing gloves autographed by Muhammad Ali
• He owns four identical pairs of black size 11 shoes
• He plans to install a basketball court in the White House grounds
• He promised Michelle he would quit smoking before running for president - he didn't
• He repaid his student loan only four years ago after signing his book deal
• He says his worst habit is constantly checking his BlackBerry
• He took Michelle to see the Spike Lee film Do The Right Thing on their first date
• He uses an Apple Mac laptop
• He visited Wokingham, Berks, in 1996 for the stag party of his half-sister's fiancé, but left when a stripper arrived
• He was given the code name "Renegade" by his Secret Service handlers
• He was known as Barry until university when he asked to be addressed by his full name
• He was known as "O'Bomber" at high school for his skill at basketball
• He was nicknamed "Bear" by his late grandmother
• He wears $1,500 (£952) Hart Schaffner Marx suits
• He won a Grammy in 2006 for the audio version of his memoir, Dreams From My Father
• He worked in a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop as a teenager and now can't stand ice cream
• He would have liked to have been an architect if he were not a politician
• His daughters' ambitions are to go to Yale before becoming an actress (Malia, 10) and to sing and dance (Sasha, 7)
• His desk in his Senate office once belonged to Robert Kennedy
• His favorite fictional television programmes are Mash and The Wire
• His favourite artist is Pablo Picasso
• His favourite book is Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
• His favourite drink is black forest berry iced tea
• His favourite films are Casablanca and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
• His favourite meal is wife Michelle's shrimp linguini
• His favourite music includes Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Bach and The Fugees
• His favourite snacks are chocolate-peanut protein bars
• His house in Chicago has four fire places
• His late father was a senior economist for the Kenyan government
• His name means "one who is blessed" in Swahili
• His speciality as a cook is chilli
• While on the campaign trail he refused to watch CNN and had sports channels on instead

Someone came knocking
At my wee, small door;
Someone came knocking
I'm sure-sure-sure;
I listened, I opened,
I looked to left and right,
But nought there was a-stirring
In the still dark night;
Only the busy beetle
Tap-tapping in the wall,
Only from the forest
The screech-owl's call,
Only the cricket whistling
While the dewdrops fall,
So I know not who came knocking,
At all, at all, at all.

Walter de la Mare (April 25, 1873 - June 22, 1956)

This is the poem that Chrissy's 5 year old daughter recited this morning in her poetry recital and won first place in the under 8 age group.

We stayed put for all this morning's entrants and I must admit that I was very impressed with all the entrants. Other poems that were recited included Ducks Ditty by Kenneth Grahame, Sea Fever by John Masefield and Old Meg by John Keats. There was also a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson but the title has eluded me. It may have been The Wind Blew Shrill And Smart, but I'm not 100% certain.

After spending all day with Chrissy and the kids yesterday I got home just around 8:30pm last night and felt exhausted. Anyway, I was in bed by 10pm and asleep not long afterwards. I was up a couple of times during the night to use the toilet and finally roused this morning at around 10am; a full 12 hours after I went to bed. Apart from a headache this afternoon, nothing unusual there, I have felt better today than I have for quite a while. I'm just having a bite to eat now and will sit down to watch some Halloween related fare.

With it being half-term and Geoff working, Chrissy has asked if I would accompany her and the kids to Muncaster Castle today. It's just down the coast from where we live; about a 30 minute drive or so at the most. I'm taking my camera and will hopefully post a few pictures later this evening or tomorrow.

I went shopping yesterday and spent £20 more than I had planned. I only actually wanted some dog food for Petra but ended up buying myself a couple of packets of mince, a couple of jars of chilli sauce, a couple of jars of pasta sauce, a couple of jars of potato bake sauce and a fair few other bits and bobs.

I decided that I would make Chilli for tea today. The packet of mince I used was almost twice the size that a single jar calls for so I used both jars of chilli sauce and added a couple of extra onions. Normally, when I make loads of Chilli I'll let it sit in the pan for a couple of days and end up having chilli for 3 or 4 evening meals in a row. However, this time, after taking what I wanted and letting Catherine and Russell also have some, I decided to tub the rest up and when it's cooled down I'll freeze it. It means I don't have to have Chilli for 3 or 4 dyas in a row and can instead just take it out of the freezer and microwave as required.

Oh, it was very nice; although it was rather mild compared to my normal fare. No less enjoyable though!

This is the second attempt at writing this post. The first attempt suffered from premature closure when I accidentally hit the power button on the keyboard whilst adjusting the feet. PC started to enter Standby mode before the PC finally froze on the close screen. I'm going to go and change the settings in the Control Panel to ensure it asks what I want to do first.

Anyway, after having a nap early this afternoon I sat down earlier this evening and thoroughly enjoyed the FA Premier League clash between Manchester United vs West Brom which United ended up winning 4-0. After the match ended I continued, and finally completed, the duplicate hunt through my wallpapers and have saved 7½gb of space by eliminating just over 23,000 duplicate images. There are stil just over 9½gb of wallpapers left, along with just over 2¾gb of other pictures.

I've spent a fair portion of today shopping and must admit that most of it was for other people. That being said however, I did buy a few things for myself. Most notably a new recipe book, a rubik's cube for my desk, Hellboy on dvd, some cookies; Tesco Finest Toffee I think, and a Date and Fudge Loaf. I also picked up my new laptop workstation, so that I can use the laptop in bed without having it sat warming up my legs, and my new Boston Red Sox replica Jersey; both of which a friend picked up for me whilst he was in California.

After watching the baseball until 4am this morning, I didn't get up until almost Noon. After popping round to look at a friend's PC that keeps on disconnecting from the internet; it transpires that he needs to reposition his wireless router, I am now passing the time until this evening's England game by sorting through my wallpapers collections.

I've put all my wallpapers back onto the PC. It's about 17gb in 73,000 files and am currently running through them all checking for duplicates. The system I'm using reckons that there's about 23,000 duplicates and I have so far deleted 3,000 of those, saving just over 2gb. I'm not going to get them all done in one fell swoop but I will endeeavour to get 1,000 or so done each time I sit down at the PC, and can hopefully, get them all done within about a week or so.

Chrissy phoned this afternoon to say that she wasn't feeling too well and would I be willing to pop over and help out. I agreed to do so after finishing a few bits and pieces I had left to do here. After picking her kids up from school we quickly popped into Whitehaven for a wee bit of shopping.

Discussions in the car on the way into Whitehaven ended up deciding what we would all have for tea. Spaghetti and home-made Meatballs. Whilst Chrissy went off to he belly dancing class Geoff, the kids and I tucked into tea and discovered the meatballs were absolutely brilliant. Really nice, very more-ish and very filling. We then sat and had a natter whilst listening to a Nightwish DVD in the background. It was a nice relaxing, stress-free evening.

It has rained all day today. I don't mean on and off. It's rained, non-stop, all day. We used to have a garden. We now have a pond. Boy, you can't half tell when Autumn has arrived. We are currently entering at least a 15th hour of continual rain and doesn't look like abating anytime soon.

A Day Makes.

I woke up this morning with a continuation of yesterday's monster headache and thought I was in for a day similar to the previous couple.

Anyway, after going through my normal morning routine I headed off to Geoff & Chrissy's just before 11am. After picking up Chrissy's son from school we had lunch in Egremont before getting back to the house and Chrissy started the job of getting the attic ready to accept the plethora of empty boxes that Chrissy wants to keep hold of. Some further medication for my headache seemed to do the trick.

After persuading Chrissy the job would go easier in the evening with Geoff around to offer a third pair of hands we retired downstairs before heading off to collect her daughter from school. I helped entertain the kids whilst Chrissy prepared tea. We all sat down to an excellent tea of Lasagne and Vegetables apart from Chrissy, who had Mash and Beef Stew, due to not being allowed Lasagne. After tea Chrissy went to Tai Chi whilst Geoff, the kids and I headed off to Workington to pick up a monitor. When we were all back at the house we were able to get the boxes back up and the attic and get sorted enough to know what needed to be taken to the local tip.

I think a change of scenery more than anything has done me a world of good and I almost feel up to tackling anything. Although, a pillow attached to a bed is probably what I'm going to attack first!

Today has been one of those days. I feel like I haven't stopped all day; and I haven't gotten anything done. It feels like I've spent the whole day chasing after other people.

The day actually started out okay and I managed to catch up with last night's Bears game. But, after that, it seemed to go downhill. No sooner would I get settled down to watch or do something than I would end up getting dragged away to do something else.

I really didn't feel like going roleplaying tonight but ended up doing so because it got me out of the house for a few hours.

I think I may need to go and see somebody. This is all starting to become a real drag.

Apparently, their systems indicated that I had been highly active on Facebook lately and viewing pages at a quick enough rate that they suspect I may have been running an automated script; a violation of their Terms of Use and potentially of federal and state laws.

As a result, my account has been disabled. I have confirmed with them that in the future I will not scrape or otherwise attempt to obtain in any manner information from their website except as permitted by their Terms of Use, and that I will immediately delete and not use in any manner any such information I may have previously obtained.

I was definitely not using any form of automated script and have a feeling that problems with Dungeons & Dragons: Tiny Adventures may actually be to blame.

My facebook page has been removed. When I try to login I get the following message:

Your account has been disabled by an administrator. If you have any questions or concerns, you can visit our FAQ page here.

I have no idea why my account has been disabled and have sent them an email asking why it has. I will just have to wait and see. In the meantime I can't play Dungeons & Dragons: Tiny Adventures.

I've received a letter from Shepway District Council today concerning the appeal I made after I received a parking ticket. Apparently, although the badge was incorrectly displayed that fact wasn't mentioned in the enforcement officer's letter and they are therefore going to waive the charge this time but have made it clear how the badge should be displayed correctly and that a similar breach would not be overlooked in the future. I have since changed the way I display the badges and shouldn't fall foul of this again.

Whenever we roleplay on a Saturday a wide selection of snacks are usually provided by members of the group. One of the goodies provided is invariably some form of flapjack. In recent weeks we have bemoaned the fact that today's flapjack tends to be a lot softer and chewier than we remember it being when we were growing up. Today, I decided to do something about it. I baked my own and it turned out okay. Not as polished a product as you could buy commercially but a very passable end result. And, it has hardened up quite nicely in the fridge. Not well enough to wreck your teeth, but well enough.

My recipe, which made two very big trays:

1kg Oats
750g Granulated Sugar
750g Margarine
500g Mixed Fruit
9 Desert Spoons Treacle
3 Teaspoons Ground Ginger
2 Teaspoons Salt

You could quite easily replace the Margarine with Butter, the Granulated Sugar with either Soft Brown or even Caster Sugar and the Treacle with Golden Syrup. You could also quite easily either leave the Mixed Fruit out or substitute it with other fruit ingredients. You need to cook in a hot oven; 200 Celsius, 375 Fahrenheit, Gas Mark 5 or 6 for about 22-25 minutes.

Anyway, following my recipe, I mixed the Margarine and Treacle together in a bowl with an electric whisk, then added the Sugar, Ginger and Salt whilst continuing to mix. I then began to fold in the Oats. Finally I split the mixture in half and added the Fruit to one of the halves. I then spread the two mixtures into greased trays and cooked for about 25 minutes at about 210 Celsius. I made sure to score the flapjack as soon as it came out of the oven to ease cutting when cool.

It would probably have been better to use greaseproof paper rather than just greasing the trays. It would have made removing the flapjack from the trays a lot easier than it turned out to be. But, I'm more than happy with myself. It must be at least 20 years since I deliberately set out to bake something from scratch rather than using a pre-mixed package.

The following arrived in my Inbox this afternoon and I feel it's worth sharing with everybody else.

(1) The three little words: 'Hold On, Please...'

Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt.

Then when you eventually hear BT's 'beep-beep-beep' tone, you know it's time to go back and hang up your handset .... You have efficiently completed your task.

These three little words could help eliminate telephone soliciting.

(2) Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end?

This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone
Calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone.

This technique is then used to determine the best time of day for a 'real' salesperson to call back and get someone at home.

What you can do after answering: If you notice there is no one there, is to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times, as quickly as possible. This confuses the machine that dialled the call and it kicks your number out of their system. Gosh, what a shame not to have your name in their system any longer!!!

(3) When you get those 'pre-approved' letters in the mail for everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the return envelope.

Most of these come with postage-prepaid return envelopes, right?

It costs them more than the regular postage 'IF' and when they are returned. It costs them nothing if you throw them away! In that case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little, postage-prepaid return envelopes.

Send an advert for your local chimney sweeper to American Express ... They might need one! Send a pizza coupon to HSBC ... In case their canteen packs up. You get the idea.

If you didn't get anything else that day, then just send them back their blank application form ... After all, it is their form!

If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn't on anything you return.

You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just to keep them guessing! It still costs them, and it is their envelope after all ... You are just returning it!!!!

The banks and credit card companies are currently getting a lot of their own junk back in the post, but folks..... We need to OVERWHELM them, in order to stop them.

Let's let them know what it's like to get lots of junk mail, and best of all they're paying for it ... Twice!

Let's help keep Royal Mail busy. Since the Royal Mail is saying that e-mail is cutting into their business profits, let's help them so they will not need to increase postage costs again. You get the idea!

If enough people follow these tips, it will work ---- maybe you'll get very little junk mail anymore.

About 2 hours ago I received a phone call from one of my closest friends to say that he was splitting up with his wife. To say that I was shocked would be a slight understatement since I'd only seen them last weekend and everything seemed okay. Apparently, Talishia had met another guy at a festival in mid-August and had grown more distant from Alley since returning home. I am not going to be judgemental and will hope to stay friends with her after they split but I cannot help but feel sorry for their two wonderful kids who will, no doubt, be affected by this split.

Geoff and Chrissy, both linked in my Blog Buddies, are currently in the middle of a major renovation of their home. They have recently had some rendering work done, a new roof installed, new windows installed also and the next stage will be to paint the outside.

Anyway, the next stage in the process inside the house will getting new insulation fitted in the loft. However, before that can happen the plaster, dust etc from the old roof needs to be tidied up. Chrissy and I made a start this afternoon whilst Geoff was still at work but quickly decided that trying to do it by hand would take forever and would probably kill us. A quick pop into Whitehaven saw us come back equipped with a beefy vacuum cleaner.

After tea was made and enjoyed; a fine tattie pot, followed by cake and whipped cream; with Kirsch for me and Geoff and Tia Maria for Chrissy, it was time to get back up in the loft and crack on with the cleaning up. A good 2½ hours later and I would say we're at least a fifth of the way through the process.

I've got a job interview tomorrow so will be unable to assist but I think Geoff and Chrissy will get a wee bit more done and I have promised to pop over on Friday if it's convenient to help out some more. The house is really starting to come together and Chrissy also has thoughts for installing a spiral staircase and converting the loft space into a couple of further bedrooms, possibly even with an en suite.

I'm back home after a 6½ hour drive. It was fairly uneventful apart from an idiot in a blue van almost going into the side of me near Maidstone in Kent. The van just came barelling down the sliproad before sweeping across the first lane and attempting to move into the second lane which I was currently occupying. Luckily I had looked over towards the sliproad to see what was in the inside lane and if I needed to move over to make space for anybody having to make way there. I spotted the guy moving into the inside lane and was about to turn back to looking down the main carriageway when I noticed the van continuing to move over and was able to take evasive action by moving into the, luckily empty, fast lane.

After Alley discovered last night that his Shadowrun disc wouldn't boot we spent a good hour or so ensuring that everything else did. No other problems were discovered and Alley is in town on Monday morning anyway so he will get the disc changed then.

We ended up listening to a bit of music before settling down to watch Next. It wasn't all that bad, but the ending left me feeling a bit flat. I enjoyed the film overall though. Anyway, we've spent most of this afternoon having fun on both Burnout Paradise and Flatout: Ultimate Carnage on the 360. Tonight, we're going to watch Smokin' Aces.

Al prepared dinner today since Tali was working today. It was a very enjoyable meal; although he did forget to do stuffing, yorkshire puddings and mashed potatoes. Although the roast potatoes he did do more than made up for it. He also made some extremely nice fruit shortbread this afternoon and has promised to give me a few pieces to take home with me tomorrow.

After having some drinks last night we popped into town relatively early on today.

First stop was Gamestation where I purchased NHL 2K7, NBA 2K8, Shadowrun and Dead Or Alive 4 for the XBox 360. Alastair purchased Shadowrun and Star Trek: Legacy, both for the XBox 360 also. I also popped into Game and purchased Burnout Paradise and Viking: Battle For Asgard also for the XBox 360. We popped into Waterstones but there wasn't anything that really grabbed me. On the way to Asda we passed HMV, where I purchased Planet Of The Apes: Special Edition (all 5 original films), Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End and Rush Hour 3. We had lunch in Asda before returning back to the car to discover I had received a £70 parking ticket for parking in a disabled bay and incorrectly displaying my badge. I've got 14 days to appeal and intend to do so. If that fails I will ensure I pay in enough time to get the 50% reduction to £35 that they have offered.

Just gonna have a relaxing evening tonight; and may watch a movie or something. It'll depend what everybody else wants to do.

I did the entire trip down in one complete stint; just over 6 hours, setting off at 2:45pm and arriving at 9:05pm. When I came down last year I filled up in Maidstone on the way down and near Sanbach on the way back. This year I managed to get all the way to Folkestone without having to fill up; and ended up filling up at the Tesco near Alley's new house. I'll probably just put another £30 or so in somewhere on the M6 on the way home. We have no plans to do anything today other than veg in the house and maybe have a few drinks later on. Will probably either pop into town or perhaps even Canterbury tomorrow to do a wee bit of unnecessary shopping.

I can't remember ever feeling this bored before. And to top it all off I can't be bothered doing anything about it.

I don't feel like reading, or listening to music, or browsing the web, or playing a game, or watching TV, a DVD or even something that I've downloaded. The car is parked in the wrong place outside and I can't be bothered going to move it so the neighbour can park his park. I don't even feel like making something to eat or drink, or even asking somebody to make me something. I don't even particularly feel like just sitting in the armchair and doing sod all. I've even got a load of podcasts to catch up on and cannot be bothered with them.

In fact, I don't even know why I've bothered writing this post. I'm in two minds as to whether to cancel it or not...

I really just cannot be bothered.

When did Monster Munch become so bland?

I remember eating Monster Munch as a child and my face being almost folded double by the strength of the Pickled Onion flavour. Even as an adult the taste has always been very strong whenever I've had them. Anyway, I bought a multipack of them for the rpg game last weekend before remembering the game had been called off. I opened the bag this evening and ate a pack of Pickled Onion flavour. I couldn't believe how bland they were. I've got another 3 packs to try and will hope that they are stronger.

A friend was kind enough to pass me some Manchester United memorabilia earlier this year; as thanks for some work that I had done for them. However, I now find myself in the position of needing to raise some cash to fund a trip later this month and have taken the unfortunate decision that the memorabilia may help raise the necessary funds. I would really have liked to keep them but needs must.

If you're a Manchester United fan then please check out what I'm selling on eBay.

About 3½ hours ago I flatly refused to add a feature to the rpg web site because it would involve editing over 150 different files. As soon as I posted the refusal I thought about whether or not there was an easier way of doing it. Anyway, a quick search of the internet and I discovered a way to achieve a similar result by editing less than 30 files. 3 hours later and the feature is implemented.

The last couple of days have been absolute scorchers here. Well, by local standards anyway. The temperature has been in the high 20s and last night I had the floor fan on most of the night whilst lying atop the covers on the bed. It was way too warm to sleep in the bed. Anyway, it's a wee bit cooler today, the low 20s, but looking outside it's only a matter of time before it starts heaving it down. The sky looks dark in all directions.

In fact, just as I'm typing this, the skies have opened. It seems to be rapidly alternating between an absolute deluge and a mild shower.

I've gotten very little done today. I bumped into Chrissy at RPG last night and she suggested that I pop round and keep her company today. I said that I would give her a ring this morning. Unfortunately, after staying up late last night to watch the Home Run Derby I was still in bed when she phoned me at 10am.

After the normal morning routine I popped over to Chrissy's just as she was showing a guy around the house who was quoting for the insulation. Not long after we had to pop into Egremont to pick up her son and ended up having lunch in a cafe in town. Whilst her son slept most of the afternoon we nattered and caught up. We haven't really had a good chance to sit down and natter for well over a year, and probably closer to two.

Anyway, after she picked up her daughter, she invited me to stay for tea with herself, the kids and her husband. I kept the kids entertained whilst she did most of the prep-work for the meal. We had Moussaka with blanched potatoes, courgette, broccoli and salad. For a first ever attempt at Moussaka it was a very nice meal; so nice in fact that I had a second helping of everything.

It's nice to catch up with friends every now and again; even if you do get to see them on a more or less weekly basis at someting like the roleplaying club. It's refreshing to just sit down one-to-one and just see where the conversation leads.

I decided to have an early night last night; especially having had 2 late nights working away either on websites or reinstalling Dad's PC. Anyway, I woke up at about 6am this morning and felt pretty good; although I decided that was too early to get up. Went back to bed and woke up again just after 9am. I've ended up doing very little today a[art from popping to the Job Centre this morning and into town to do a wee bit of shopping this afternoon. No pressures or hassle!

After spending most of last night doing some work on a couple of websites that I am involved with, it was after 4:30am when I finally went to bed. Fully intending to stay in bed for as long as I could, I was rudely awakened at about 10am this morning by a couple of fighter jets screaming overhead.

The Lake District is an ideal location for the RAF to practice low-level flying and they normally take place in the valleys further to the east and south. We rarely hear them, except maybe in the distance if they get a bit closer. It must be well over a year since I can last remember any low-level drills taking place this far west of the mountains.

Anyway, I've spent most of my time this morning doing a bit more website work and am now going to take a break and watch some tv.

It's been another rather close day here and I decided that after the amount of running around, seemingly chasing after nothing, that I have been doing lately I was going to take the opportunity and have a chill out. I've gotten myself eight bottles of Grolsch and will be taking things easy for the rest of the evening and enjoying most of them. I may even watch a movie or perhaps just sit in the fading light and enjoy some loud heavy metal music.

As Pewari mentioned in her podcast the other day we rarely get an extended period of good weather here in the UK. And where I live in Cumbria it's even rarer. The closeness of the local lakes and mountains to the sea tends to result in a lot of rainy weather.

However, having said that, the weather here has been really good since last Monday and looking at the forecast for the coming week it's not going to get significantly worse. There's a few cooler, cloudy days forecast for the week ahead but no rain ahead.

Now that my toes are healed I may take the opportunity one day this week to pop into the hills and take a few photographs. I'm tempted to pop down the coast to the Eskdale valley and take a visit to the Roman Fort up on Hard Knot Pass.

I went out for a drink last night. I've only just got home. I had fun!

I installed Ubuntu on my laptop about a month or so ago and have been dual booting it with XP ever since to see how things worked out. After a month of using Ubuntu I haven't once had to drop into XP on the laptop and am considering the test successful. There's been nothing I've wanted to do on the laptop that I haven't been able to do in Ubuntu and the next step is to upgrade to Hardy Heron, the next version of Ubuntu, when it's released in a couple of weeks.

However, having said all that, I'm still not going to install it on my main PC; for a number of reasons:

• I still have a lot of Windows based applications and games and really don't want to have to mess about with Wine or other software to get them running under Linux.


• If somebody phones, emails or IMs me looking for some PC advice it makes life much easier having XP in front of me so that I can walk them through the problem.


• The desktop is left switched on virtually constantly; it's only ever switched off if there's a need to reboot, so dual booting would be a waste of hard drive space.


• And, the main reason I'm not installing it on my desktop is that I like the way my PC is currently set up and am very comfortable with it. Even with having to reinstall XP once or twice in the last 3 or 4 years I've still ended up using the same sort of settings and the same little utilities I've always used.

However, I can happily say that if you don't like or just don't want to use XP or Vista I can recommend Ubuntu as a very good alternative. Just be aware that although support for Ubuntu is very good, it's nowhere near as widespread or accessible as it is for the Windows platforms, and gaming suffers similarly. There is a vibrant community out there and members are more than happy to help others out.

In summary, Ubuntu is brilliant and I've no intentions of removing it from the laptop. I might even go the whole hog yet and remove XP from it totally. But, I like XP on my desktop and am not going to give it up.

An article on last night's Gadget Show caught my attention. With the abundance of digital downloads nowadays it's rather a minefield as to whether or not they are covered by your contents insurance. I've never actually bought any digital downloads and would much rather have the physical media in my hand. But, the article got me thinking "What if I did own some?"

I've checked my policy document and I'm still not certain whether I would be covered or not. The policy document doesn't specifically define digital downloads but in the section on General Exclusions it lists 'Date change and computer viruses' and has the following definition: 'Computers include hardware, software, data, electronic data processing equipment and other computing and electronic equipment linked to a computer.' That means that I'm not covered for data loss by date changes or computer viruses. Now, because it says that these exclusions apply to all sections of the policy I would think that it's probably fair to assume that the definitions also apply to the whole policy. If that's the case, then digital downloads; as part of the data, would be covered for loss by theft or accidental damage.

I've just created a Twitter profile for myself. Anybody interested can follow me. Shockingly, 'Bowch' was already taken so I'm signed up as 'BowchUK'. In fact, further delving reveals that the 'Bowch' username is actually me when I signed up for Liberal Democrat updates back in January. Unfortunately, I don't know what email address or password was used and can't seem to recover it. So, I'm 'BowchUK' on Twitter.

My internet connection is currently busted. BT are sending out an engineer tomorrow morning.

Today, I have been mostly troubleshooting PCs.

First off this morning my sister phoned me with some problems so I ended up talking her through installation and running of some Anti-Spyware software. Dad's PC had a similar issue just after lunch and I spent a good hour or so sorting that too.

Scoot phoned mid-afternoon to say he was having problems with his PC. The screen resolution had downgraded to 800x600 and anytime he tried to change it back to 1024x768 it came up with an error. Ended up popping down and finally decided that a reinstall of Windows was in order. He's been running Win98 and had only done 1 reinstall in the last 10 years. Anyway, I had a spare copy of XP which I gave him and installed that for him. Installed a few other bits and pieces and set the hard drives off defragging to help out as much as possible. Couldn't do any software updates for him since he isn't connected to the net.

I got home and my sister asked me to help her out on The Spiderwick Chronicles. I spent a good hour or so trying to help her out and ended up giving up.

I came back upstairs, plugged the laptop's lead in and got a nice white flash from the extension. Quickly unplugged and took the lead downstairs to change fuses. The fuse that I took out happened to still be fine and powered up a CD player. I put a new fuse in anyway and took the lead back upstairs. Moved a couple of plugs about and everything, including the extension that had flashed and my laptop, is still fine.

We've got an unwanted and uninvited visitor; a mouse. I went to get the cereal out of the cupboard this morning to discover one of the cornflakes bags have been split open and one of the boxes of weetabix have been chewed through. We've disposed of anything that even had the slightest chance of contamination and spent the rest of the day going through all the cupboards in the kitchen, emptying them, disinfecting them and ensuring that any possible route of ingress has been blocked. We've also moved any boxes or bags of foodstuffs at risk out of the bottom cupboards and put them up into the higher cupboards, We haven't put any poison or traps down but we may yet end up doing so.

I ordered some blanks dvds over the weekend for myself, my Dad and a friend. I ordered them from BigPockets and they arrived this morning.

Along with the DVDs I also ordered a Bag O' Crap. For £2.99 they sent me a box with 'three crappy items' in it. The only guarantee they made was that the contents would be worth a lot more then a measly £3.

I received a Masterplug Weather Resistant Plug Shelter which isn't on their website, but sells for about £1.30 from SVP, a pair of in-ear earphones which also aren't on their site but probably retail for about £1, a pack of 4 Memorex Energy Super Heavy Duty 'C' Batteries, which they sell for £1.80 and the pièce de résistance; a 240 disc AMPS DJ Style Aluminium Carry Case, which they retail for just over £11. So, £15 of product for £3. I can't complain and am actually quite happy with what I received.

Since 1991, Regulation (EEC) No 918/83 has limited the maximum value of goods imported into the EU before incurring customs charges at €22 [£17.50]. From 1st December 2008 this limit will rise to €150 [£119.50] as a result of EU Council Directive 2007/74/EC. The text of the proposal can be found here.

We had a power cut this afternoon. The weather has been okay for the last couple of days and it would appear that the local sub station failed rather than the weather being responsible. Big plumes of white smoke and the replacement of the biggest fuse you could imagine later and all is good again. The power was down for about 3 hours or so and thankfully we went out shopping so didn't have to find alternate forms of entertainment in the interim.

After being afflicted by a serious case of wanderlust in the past it would appear that my good friend, Mondrak, has finally settled upon a home on the web. His email address hasn't changed in at least six months; okay, it's more than a year, but people who know him will know how often we used to receive emails saying he'd changed his email address. He's also moved his blog over to WordPress.

There's an updated link on the left if you're interested.

I've been receiving a rather large amount of spam on a daily basis for at least the last couple of years. It started off with about 150-200 a day but has recently peaked at a regular figure closer to 1000. In fact, once or twice it's been closer to 1500. Anyway, with broadband I never really concerned myself too much about it and let my email client and the filters I had set up within it sort them out. However, it still wasn't sorting them all and I'd still have to trawl through at least 100 a day to make sure there wasn't any genuine emails getting caught.

Anyway, I finally decided to try and sort it out a bit better; with the intention of stopping the spam even getting as far as my inbox. I had a poke about in my domain control panel and thought I'd figured it out. Rather than redirecting all unqualified domain addresses to the main account I told it to filter them first; searching for certain prefixes. Anything that didn't match the prefixes would be bounced. Testing seemed to back me up.

However, thanks to Mondrak, I managed to discover that it was blocking all emails except the ones I had originated from my own PC, either via the email client or via any of the web mail services I have access to. After further tweaking I managed to eventually solve that problem only to run into a different one. The way the filters have been designed means that as well as allowing bowch@ as a valid prefix it would also allow notbowch@ or fakebowch@ or any other prefix ending with bowch@. Setting filter options that would solve this wasn't working. Everytime I set it to read "Does Not Equal" it would change to "Equal" for no apparent reason.

I have ended up setting up extra email accounts and telling the server to forward them to my main account. Any unqualified emails will now get bounced back with a failure message. Valid email addresses now only include bowch (at), blog (at), useful (at), webmaster (at) and yahoogroups (at) with everything else bouncing. I've set them up with relatively low disk quotas and will hopefully not need to change much. I'm going to keep an eye on it over the next couple of weeks and make sure that it forwards okay and isn't eating up valuable space on my domain server.

I've been doing some research on the Middle East during the 12th century for my Saturday game and got sidetracked into the world in general in the 12th century and then England in particular. After reading a few articles, now well off topic, I came across an article about Cumbrian Dialect and realised how much of the local dialect I actually use/have used without realising that it's specifically local. Just a few examples include:

• la'al - meaning little
• yam - meaning home (as garn yam) [I'm going home]
• skit - meaning make fun of
• twat - meaning hit someone
• marra - meaning friend (ahreet, marra) [Hi, Mate]
• hossing - meaning raining heavily (it's hossing it duwn) [Regular occurrence]

And then there's the old sheep counting system:

1. yan
2. tyan
3. tethera
4. methera
5. pimp
6. sethera
7. lethera
8. hovera
9. dovera
10. dick
11. yandick
12. tyandick
13. tetheradick
14. metheradick
15. bumfit
16. yan-bumfit
17. tyan-bumfit
18. tethera-bumfit
19. methera-bumfit
20. giggot

I could always remember 1-4 but that was about it. In fact I always have a tendency to say 'yan' rather than 'one' anyway; even when speaking with non-locals.

Makes you wonder how much other people use local dialect/phrases without realising.

After looking through the changes announced in this week's budget it would appear that very little will change with my day-to-day, week-on-week spending ability.

Income Tax & National Insurance
Due to the fact that I'm currently not working, the raising of the personal allowance to £5,345, reduction from 22% down to 20% and abolition of the 10% starting band won't affect me. The change in National insurance Contribution rates and thresholds also won't affect me directly. Of course, when I start working again these will become relevant.

Tax Credit & Child Benefit
These changes also don't affect me and to be honest, although there are rises in these, it would appear that they aren't t likely to be of any significant benefit to parents anyway; especially when inflation and rises in the price of commodities such as wheat are taken into consideration. Look for significant rises in the cost of flour and bread as the worldwide wheat shortage starts kicking in.

Winter Fuel Payment
I don't qualify; I'm under 60. But, this will help my Dad somewhat.

Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs)
I don't have any ISAs so the increase in the overall annual investment limit and the change from the starting 10% rate on the non savings income to a starting 10% rate on the savings income doesn't affect me.

Alcohol & Tobacco
Although I do drink it isn't particularly often; even when I was in full time employment. I rarely drink pints so the 4p rise in the price of a pint has no bearing. The 55p rise in the price of a bottle of spirits is what is likely to affect me most. I tend to drink Jack Daniels and Coke whilst out and once in a blue moon I'll treat myself to a decent bottle of malt whisky. On the Tobacco side, I don't smoke, so the increases there won't affect me.

Motoring Taxes
The changes in Vehicle Excise Duty won't directly affect me. My Dad is disabled and he is therefore exempt from paying the duty; this is paid directly via his DLA. The freeze on the planned fuel duty increase of 2 pence per litre in April 2008 until October 2008 is quite welcome; although I'm wondering how long companies like Tesco and Morrison can maintain their local prices at about 105p per litre when some forecourts in London are charging up to 130p per litre.

Other Measures
A lot of the other measures announced in the budget lean towards protecting the environment.

The government has called on retailers to encourage the shift away from single-use carrier bags and have announced that if there is not sufficient progress by the end of the year they will look to impose a charge on these bags from early next year.

All new non-domestic buildings to be zero carbon from 2019. This is in addition to the ambition for all new homes to be zero carbon from 2016.

Air Passenger Duty will be replaced with a duty payable per plane rather than per passenger from November 2009.

Finally, the UK is currently working towards a long-term goal of reducing CO2 emissions by at least 60 per cent by 2050. The Climate Change Bill will commit the government to fixed and binding 5-year carbon budgets

I got up this morning with the intentions of getting some serious prep-work done for this session's Ratkin game. Unfortunately, my Dad's PC had other ideas. When he booted it up it had a whole raft of virii and trojans listed. Upon further delving not only had he been infected with Vundo but also with various fake AV software that had disabled his existing AV protection and also a lot of administrator functions such as the ability to run the Task Manager. After spending an hour at it I decided that a complete clean install would be for the best. Suffice to say I got very little done today other than that. It's up and running and clean at least...

I was at the hospital this afternoon for an interview in the Pharmacy department; who are looking for a Clerical Officer. I think the interview went okay and it's now just a matter of waiting to hear.

I got home and my sister's dog pounced on me when I walked in the door and landed on my toe. Boy, did it hurt! I'd managed to go the best part of a week without knocking them and it's now throbbing away quite nicely.

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the erection of the Angel Of The North next to the A1 near Newcastle/Gateshead; although Wikipedia actually lists 16th February 1998 as the completion date. I didn't realise it had actually been that long; where do the years go?

Anyway, it's estimated that it's probably seen well over 30 million times a year by people either passing or visiting it could very well end up being seen over 3 billion times during it's expected 100 year life.

I didn't realise that there is also a companion Angel Of The South planned for erection at Ebbsfleet in 2009 next to the high speed Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

I had a job interview this morning with Allerdale Borough Council; for the position of Benefits Clerk, based at Allerdale House in Workington. Allerdale is the borough north of Copeland; where I live, and has a population of approximately 95,000. It includes the towns and surrounding villages of Workington, Maryport, Cockermouth, Keswick and Wigton. I think the interview went okay and hopefully I managed to answer all their questions to a satisfactory standard. My only concern is that I don't know a lot about Council Tax or Housing Benefits but I'm hoping that a lot of the people interviewed are going to be in a similar position. There's actually 2 positions up for grabs so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I must admit my feet were really sore first thing this morning when I put my shoes on and I was hobbling around the house grimacing and thinking "This isn't going to work." After all, it's the first time I've worn socks and shoes since getting my toes done. However, by the time I'd reached Workington my feet weren't anywhere near as sore as they had been and although there was a fair bit of discomfort, it wasn't enough to cause me great hardship. I managed to limp through the morning okay.

Stolen/Borrowed from Casp's website.

Just over a week after Christmas and it's started snowing here. Unfortunately the forecast is for rain on Friday and Saturday; but we can hope...

All the best for 2008 to one and all.

Best wishes for the season to one and all.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Let your heart be light
From now on,
Our troubles will be out of sight

Through the years
We all will be together,
If the Fates allow
Hang a shining star upon the highest bough.
And have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

As usual, March has been a very busy month.

Well, 2005 has been consigned to the history books and 2006 is now upon us.

The Stupidest Things!

Taking a leaf out of Mark's book I've completed my own version of his meme. Going through the list there wasn't much that really sucked in 1988 and there was at least 3 or 4 I could've picked as my favourite.

Taking a leaf from mcphee. I made a quiz too.

Take my Quiz! and then Check out the Scoreboard!

Yesterday was my first day back at work.

He who has gone, so we but cherish his memory, abides with us, more potent, nay, more present than the living man.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1900 - 1944

With the General Election just around the corner I thought people might be interested in a Political Survey.

Well, 2004 has been consigned to the history books and 2005 is now upon us.

I am your friend and my love for you goes deep. There is nothing I can give you which you have not got, but there is much, very much that, while I cannot give it, you can take.

No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in today. Take heaven!
No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant. Take peace!

The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach is joy. There is radiance and glory in the darkness could we but see - and to see we have only to look. I beseech you to look!

Life is so generous a giver, but we, judging its gifts by the covering, cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard. Remove the covering and you will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of love, by wisdom, with power.

Welcome it, grasp it, touch the angel's hand that brings it to you. Everything we call a trial, a sorrow or a duty, believe me, that angel's hand is there, the gift is there, and the wonder of an overshadowing presence. Our joys, too, be not content with them as joys. They, too, conceal diviner gifts.

Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty - beneath its covering - that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven.

Courage, then, to claim it, that is all. But courage you have, and the knowledge that we are all pilgrims together, wending through unknown country, home.

And so, at this time, I greet you. Not quite as the world sends greetings, but with profound esteem and with the prayer that for you now and forever, the day breaks, and the shadows flee away.

Fra Giovanni, Christmas Eve, 1513

A little over a week to go until Christmas, and I've already got everybody's presents bought, did it all online, but still haven't sent out any cards. I'm not yet into the festive spirit and the ways things are I probably won't be up until the 23rd when I'm going out for the office celebration.

Well, I'm home from my Blackpool trip and had a good time whilst away. Watched some Smallville, some D&D cartoons, Aladdin, Tomb Raider 2, Kung Pow, Indiana Jones and a couple of episodes of Lost.

It's Blackpool time again, and a chance to meet up with all the old Quest gang... I'll be back on Monday; although I doubt anybody would really notice that I've gone anyway...

Virtually a whole month goes by without any posts here.

Well, today had been extremely hectic so far, and it's only 2:30pm.

Today was a Bank Holiday in the UK.

Blackpool was good.

Well, 2003 has disappeared in to the ether and 2004 is upon us.

Seasons greetings to one and all..

I think I've just about recovered enough to bring you all a tale to strike terror in to most hearts. Well, ok, I'm lying. Most of you will probably end up pissing your pants with laughter...

I enjoy every minute of it...

Wrestling lost a legend today; Stu Hart, 88, died from complications of diabetes and pneumonia. He is survived by 10 of his 12 children. Respected by everybody in the business he was involved in wrestling for well over 50 years and was responsible for training many of wrestling's greats. He will be sorely missed by all...

You know what?

I've recently come across a couple of things that in theory should be quite nice, but aren't; in fact, they bloody ming...

Is it too much to ask for a full night of decent sleep?

I've got a friend in the Navy; his name is Mark, and this weekend he had some time at home.

Ok, I admit that I had an inkling all along of what Mark was asking, and here, after much brain-wracking, are my 5:

Okay, Mark, here's my 5 and kinda reasons...

Well, we've had lots of discussion on IRC over the last couple of days concerning, amongst other things, the Power Rangers and a couple of milkshake drinks, Crusha & Fridj, although NesQuick only got mentioned in passing.

Went to Jo's 40th birthday party last night.

Well, I've done over 70 hours this week at week, and needless to say I'm absolutely cream-crackered.

Just read mcphee's blog and discovered that Averil has sold the Sutton Park.

Over the last year or so I have gradually become more and more disillusioned with Quest.

Well, it's almost the middle of the week and it's been well over a week since my last entry; which, to be honest, is probably not that surprising.

Had a driving lesson on Friday afternoon, the wonders of reversing around a corner were revealed to me, along with instruction to book my Theory Test. Well, I have done so and Saturday June 7th is the first big date in my efforts to learn to drive.

Well, yesterday was polling day in Copeland, although truth be told due to the fact that Copeland ran an all postal elections ballot papers were being returned from mid-April onwards.