British Justice... What British Justice??

Whilst walking home form the bus stop in the next village with our dog Bonnie, I came across some damage to a building caused by some mindless vandals. This made me consider the state of the British Justice system.

There is seldom a day goes by when there is an article in the daily press highlighting the inconsistencies of British Justice. It all depends on how convincing the defence or prosecution Lawyers are in twisting the evidence in their favour.

I would love to see a change in the way some crimes are treated. For instance theft and vandalism. In most cases, the criminals are given a fine, or community service orders. Only the most prolific offenders are given a custodial sentence. Even then, they may be given a few years, possibly 3 or 4, but the sentence is invariably reduced, for a variety of reasons. In reality they will only serve less than half the original length allocated by the Judge.

I know this would never be accepted by Human Rights brigade, but why not have a simple system of Justice for thieves and vandals. Any thief or vandal must pay back the cost, of what they stole or damaged. The court costs should be included in the total amount to be repaid.

Now most of the criminals, would be unable to pay back that sort of money. So then they are sent to prison, and must work at some trade within the prison. Their labour is given a value that is consistent with the value payed to law abiding citizens who get paid with board and lodgings included in their pay. The criminals will then have to stay in prison until the debt is paid. It is entirely up to them how quickly they want to get out of prison. The harder they work, the quicker they get out of prison. More importantly, the criminals will know exactly how long they will be incarcerated for. It will be entirely up to them how long they stay in prison for, and not a decision for some parole board that the British Tax payer has to pay their salaries, so that they can make the decision to let the criminal out prison early, to allow the criminal to continue his/her life of crime.

This system would have many advantages. It would discourage repeat offending, as most criminals steal because they don't want to work and buy the items they covet. Vandals have no idea of the cost of the damage they cause. I think they would certainly think twice about causing more damage knowing the consequences of their actions.

The only problem I can see with this idea, is that there is simply not enough prison space, to implement this kind if Justice. Also, probably the Prison service is not geared up to provide this form of punishment. I am also sure the thieves and vandals would not want this sort of Justice!

Utility Man goes International... Well, sort of?!

My colleague WarrenJoffre had added a link to another blog called "Along the Central Line". Out of curiosity, I took a look at the sight, and I was immediately struck with the language translator gadget available. Between WarrenJoffre and myself, we tried to install our own translators to our sites, with out any success.

Every time I installed a translator, either it would not show the little flag icons, or it simply wouldn't translate at all! At first I thought it might be because of the computer at work, which has severe Internet restrictions, but I had the same problem when I got home.

I then spent a couple of hours searching the Internet for the html code that would actually do what I wanted it to do. Eventually I found the code, and now I have the translation facility placed on my Blog! The original code only had 9 languages available. I needed it to have one extra language - Russian, so that my wife's family could read it if they wanted to.

Another hour of Internet searching, and I finally found the code for the Russian translator. Now if anyone knows how to find the code for any other languages, then I would be glad to hear from you. For some reason, when I try and add the code on this page, it changes when it is posted. So I don't know yet how to get the HTML code to stay as it is when posted and not get partially executed, as it seems to be at present.

It's Fathers Day!

This morning before I went to work, I received this fridge magnet from my step-daughter! I am absolutely thrilled to bits that I have received such a gift. This is the first time anything like this has ever happened!

On a more interesting note. Is Father's Day always set to happen 9 months before Mother's Day?

Currently Reading

This is a very short book, so it will probably only take me a day or two to read it.

Synopsis: Few of us can resist the lure and fascination of a genuine mystery - the unsolved crime, the inexplicable disappearance, strange gifts and powers, the enigmas of past and present.

Who or what killed nurse Helen Smith? Who was the real Jack the Ripper? Can people have out-of-the-body experiences? What is really behind hypnosis, miracle healing, acupuncture? How did the Dogon learn the secrets of Sirius?...

This intriguing book examines some of the most celebrated and puzzling mysteries that have baffled the scientists, medical experts, historians and criminologists of the world.

Update: I have just discovered in one of the chapters about Amnesia, is an article about my father!!! It is about his battle with Alzheimer's disease, and how he volunteered to be a human Guinea Pig for the new drugs being tested. I am not sure if it was such a good idea though. The drugs couldn't reverse the the disease, only slow it down. So instead of taking the average 7 years to die from the disease, it actually took him nearly 20 years to die!!! Not a very pleasant experience for the rest of the family to go through though.

Modern Electronics Guru Required!!!

I have just spent the last 5 days trying to sort out a couple of problems at home. More specifically, my computer and my TV.

Let's start with the computer. Recently, I noticed that every time I used Windows Explorer it would take up to 30 seconds to execute a command, such as move, rename, copy, paste or delete. Basically anything that required a right-click of the mouse.

I had checked on various forums, and the general consensus of this problem was caused by the DNS or DHCP settings on the internet connection. After trying to discover exactly whereabouts on the computer these settings were stored and finding how difficult it would be to change, I decided to leave well alone and just live with this problem.

My brother sent me an e-mail last week and when I replied to him, my e-mail was bounced back with the cryptic message that an IP address had been blacklisted because the computer was being used remotely to send spam e-mails! I phoned my brother and told him of the message as I thought the IP address belonged to his computer. He checked his computer and found the IP address wasn't his, it was mine!

After spending a day running every anti-virus, spy ware, and firewall program I had, without finding the Trojan implanted on my computer, I decided there was only one option left. Format the Hard Drive!

It took me 2 days to get the Operating system and essential programs and settings set up once again. I am pleased to say that the computer is now working properly again, and I did not lose any of my data files in the process either, as I have done on previous occasions!

While the problem with the computer was unfolding, I discovered I also now have a problem with my TV. Every time I try to watch anything through the Co-Axial cable (RF cable) the sound and picture keeps appearing and disappearing every few seconds. At first I thought it might be a fault with the TV. Then I discovered that I had no problems if all the equipment was connected using scart leads.

As I do not have enough scart connections on my TV for all the equipment I have (digital tuner, satellite receiver, VCR, and DVD player), I visited my local electronics store to see what I could do about it. While at the shop, I learned that the probable cause of the fluctuation is that "the RF signal is looping back on itself".

The state of play now is that I have managed to connect everything back together but I now have to leave the VCR on permanently if I am to get anything to show on the TV! It is by no means a perfect solution, and I know I will not be happy until I have got everything working the way it was before!

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Teenagers! Who needs them?

Although I recently got married, and I now have a teenage stepdaughter, I have also had another teenager living here for just over a year. I have discovered the dubious distinction of what it is like to have someone who thinks they can do as little as possible within the house, and treat us as if we were a free hotel!

Basically, I was railroaded into providing accommodation for the grandson of my ex partner. Last year he was in the middle of his GCSE exams when his mother decided to move out of our village and relocate to Chesterfield (about 100 miles away, or 2 hours driving). As it was too far to commute to and from his school, I was asked if I could allow him to stay at my house for 2 months while he completed his exams. I discussed this with my wife and daughter, and we all agreed to let him stay until he finished his exams.

Once we had made this agreement, one month later we were dropped another bombshell. The boy had just been accepted into the Motor sport College at Silverstone Race Circuit, to train as a Race Mechanic. This College course was for one year! As we live only 10 miles away from Silverstone, the boys mother basically told us that if he could stay with us he could go to college. If we refused, then he would lose the opportunity for a career in motor sport.

Now, for the month that he had been with us, he had been very helpful, cooking the odd meal, cleaning the house, cutting the lawn. He was also very polite to all of us. After discussing the situation with my wife and daughter, we all agreed to let him stay for one year to give him a chance at a lucrative career.

When we asked his mother to provide some payment towards the cost of supporting her son, she told us that she would transfer the child benefit over to us, and that her son would have to provide the difference himself!!! So far, in the 60 weeks he has been with us, he has only paid us the difference for one week!!! We deliberately set the amount that he should pay very low, so that he could easily pay the amount if he wanted to. Now he seems to think he can help himself to anything in the house, without asking first!

Within a few weeks of him starting College, his character started to change. He became very moody, and stopped being helpful around the house. My wife and daughter used to prepare sandwiches for him to take to his part time work, or College. At first he used to say "thank you" to them. Then he wouldn't say anything. The final straw came when the girls had prepared some sandwiches for him, he took them with him, but returned home without eating them and promptly threw them into the bin! Since that day, the girls no longer make any sandwiches for him anymore!

Another thing that has me extremely puzzled, is how items within the house strangely disappear. I have no proof of any individual person taking them, and when I have asked all members of the household, no one admits to being responsible. The most expensive item to disappear has been the webcam from my computer room. I still harbour a faint hope that perhaps it will miraculously reappear one day.

As the year progressed, he started missing lessons at college, because he stayed out well into the night with his friends. Many weekends, he was too lazy to go to his part time work, and consequently, when his employer was looking to reduce the number of staff, he was dismissed because of his poor timekeeping. Even now, with his present part time work, he thinks nothing of turning up for work at 10 O'clock when he should be there at 9!

The only light at the end of the tunnel for us is that the boy has been offered a trial as a race mechanic in Brighton. He tells us that the trial is for 2 weeks, and is supposed to be happening immanently. He has been telling us this for the past month now!! If he does go for this trial period, I hope that it proves successful, then he will have to find somewhere of his own to live.

One thing is absolutely certain though. His college course finishes in July. He will then have two choices to make. Either he moves to Brighton and commences his career as a Race Mechanic, or he goes home to his mother. He will NOT be staying with us any longer!

Currently Reading

Book 5 of 5. I've read this book once before, but I cannot remember anything about it now. So this one should be almost as good as reading a brand new book!

Where's the Grease Monkey when you need one?

Where I live, there has been very little vandalism in the area over the past 13 years. So it was a surprise to discover some mindless idiot had decided to break off the aerial on my car right at the base. I now cannot receive any radio signals until I do something about it!

It is many years since I had to replace a car aerial. and I know it is never an easy task to do, as the wiring is always a sod to get connected from the aerial to the radio. As my years advance, I find the thought of contorting myself into the inaccessible places within bodywork is distinctly unappealing.


Now I could probably cheat and find an old wire coat hanger and shove it into the remains of the present aerial. Or I could pay someone else to do all the work. For some reason, I decided to attempt the task myself! Big mistake, HUGE mistake!!!!


First, I had to take the old aerial out. I had to remove the plastic wheel arch cover over the front wheel to gain access to where the aerial was attached to the bodywork. I discovered that where the plastic was attached, the metal had all corroded, and I got a massive shower of rusty wheel arch all over me as I tried to remove the plastic! Now there is no way I can re-attach the plastic to the wheel arch again, unless I go and get new metal welded back on again!


Oh well, now I have got this far, I might as well continue and worry about putting everything back together again later. Inside the car, I managed to get to all the wiring behind the dashboard, and located the aerial wire. The next thing I did was attach a piece of string to the wire securely and then went back to front of the car and successfully pulled the wire with the string attached all the way out, and removed the old aerial completely. Phew, half way there!

After all the trouble of getting the old aerial out, I though I might as well make it worth my while and replace the old aerial with a new "motorised" version. "No one will be able to break this off" I said to myself. When I purchased the new aerial, I discovered that I had a new set of problems to overcome!

When I got the aerial out of the box, it had about 1.3 metres of aerial cable attached. It also had 3 wires for the electrical operation. These wires were approximately 6 inches (15cm) long. How I am expected to connect these wires to the radio, live and negative points, in the car, is something I couldn't work out. Now I have to rummage around the garage to find some extra lengths of wire to extend the wiring so that I can connect the aerial to the correct parts of the car.

Putting everything back again, has definitely been a challenge for me. The weather hasn't been of much help either. Every time I go out to the car, somebody turns the tap on and I get a soaking! For some reason electricity and water do not mix! So my attempts at finishing this task is now dragging on over a number of days.

Having managed to add extension wires to the original ones at the aerial, I then start rummaging around inside the car to find the correct wires to attach my new leads to. At first it was quite easy as I had plenty of space to get to the wires under the steering column. It was when I needed to connect a wire to the radio that I came across a major obstacle.

There simply was no room to feed a wire through behind the dash board to anywhere close to the radio. So I had to remove the centre console to be able to get to the wiring behind the radio. Only after removing enumerable plastic bits, and dozens of screws, was I able to peer into the dark depths inside. (I am now distinctly worried! I didn't realise that the car had been secretly trying to build its own version of "Short Circuit"!)

I managed to connect all the wires to the correct places. I was even smart enough to test that the aerial actually goes up and down when I switch the radio on, before I started to put everything back together! So after about 5 days, I now have a fully functioning motorised car aerial, a rusty wheel arch that has suddenly become more religious than I will ever be, and a mixed sense of accomplishment, tempered with chagrin that I have caused more damage to the car than the vandal originally did!

Recently Viewed

This was definitely a weird film. Very dark and depressing. "The end of the world is nigh!" type of film. There is no hope left for us mortals!

Recently Viewed

Had a chance to see this movie, and I was quite impressed with the overall effect. I did find the time travel theme just a little bit hard to swallow though. A bit surprised that there was a relationship between Spock and Uhura, which was something new to the franchise. This is one movie that will definitely end up in my DVD collection at some point.

Water, Water, Everywhere!

A colleague of mine sent me an e-mail with a link to a PowerPoint presentation about bottled water. With all the media hype of how global warming is going to ruin our planet, and how we must all do something about it NOW! This message about how much energy and resources are put into the plastic bottle of water you drink, is scary!

I have personally hated paying an extortionate price for bottled water, though I have bought a bottle or two, especially on a hot day when I haven't been able to get any water to drink in any other way. I understand how many people find it so convenient to carry a bottle of water with them.

What I cannot understand is why we cannot go back to the days where drinks were always sold in bottles. Nowadays, all your milk comes in plastic bottles, all your fizzy drinks are sold in cans or plastic bottles. When I was a child, I can clearly remember buying a glass bottle of fizzy drink, and when it was consumed, I could take the empty bottle back to the shop and receive some money back. The bottle was then sent back to the manufacturer for re-use.

Take a look at this presentation and perhaps one day we might return to glass bottles that can be be re-used over and over again. If enough of us change our habits just a small amount, then perhaps, collectively, we can all make a huge difference to our environment.

Recently Viewed

Interesting film, as it certainly made me more aware of the exploitation of Africa's riches by foreign Nationals, who think nothing of setting up terrorist groups who brutally subjugate the local inhabitants to do whatever they want.

I will certainly be more careful about where a diamond I want to purchase has come from, and how it was obtained!

Secret Squirrel at Work!

This week, I have been quietly doing a Mystery Shop assessment on a high street bank. The work involves two parts. First I had to make a personal visit to the branch, and assess the cleanliness, friendliness of the staff, and their ability to answer certain questions accurately. Next I have to wait to see if they call me back on the phone as requested.

I have been doing mystery shopping as a hobby since 2004. So far, my reports have not been challenged, either by the venue or the companies I work for. Only once, have I made a mistake of going to the wrong venue, and basically wasting my time and effort on the survey.

Since the onset of this recession, the number of different venues, has begun to shrink, and more to the point, the payments for the time, and effort have reduced considerably. The biggest cutback has been the travelling allowance. One of the companies I worked for was called NOP. They had a policy of paying a mileage allowance to all destinations. So I was quite happy to travel over 50 miles to visit a venue. Sadly, NOP is no more, and the current employers either have a maximum payment of £3.50 for travelling, or sneakily include the travelling expense into the overall payment. So now I have become very choosy as to what venue I will visit.

Because I seem to provide good quality reports on the venues I visit, I often get contacted by one of my employers to visit a number of venues further away than I would normally accept. Then the employers are happy to pay the full travelling expense! It is actually quite fun to receive a call and get them to negotiate a price that is favourable to me!

Doing this kind of work also proves very helpful where I work for my main job. Here the tables are turned and we get mystery shopped on a regular basis! It also allows me to understand that every survey is always going to subject to the individual assessors viewpoint, and no two assessors can be truly similar. I am also very quick to challenge any result that shows that the assessor hasn't done his or her job fully.

When I first started doing this work, I was given the opportunity to visit a loan company. Now at the time, credit card companies were offering interest rates around 20%. Bank loans were about 10%, and mortgages were about 7%. This loan company specialised in giving loans to people who did not have a good enough credit rating to get a loan from the usual places. My task was to ask for £1000 to buy a new TV. I would only need to borrow the money for 1 year. As I went through the process, I discovered the sales person was trying to hide something from me. Whet she was trying to hide was the staggering 59% APR they were charging for the loan!

I never realised that if you you are in full time work, and pay your bills on time, you can get low interest credit, which you probably don't need, very easily. For those people who are in desperate need of credit to help sort out the mess they have got into, they are the ones who end up paying extortionate rates they can ill afford to pay! No wonder you hear stories of vulnerable people ending up with nothing from having out of desperation gone to loan sharks!

How difficult would it be for some institution to offer to help those in need by offering them a loan at a reasonable rate with the condition that they are taught how to manage their money as part of the deal. Most people in financial difficulty, do not want to face up to their problems, and let the problem continue to get worse until it is at a stage where they either lose everything, or they become so depressed that they seek solution in committing suicide.

There was a TV program a while back that had a financial advisor help families sort out their financial problems. Although this an interesting way to do this, it would only help a few people, lucky enough to be chosen to go on the show. There are thousands of other people in as much need of help, and don't have the luxury of waiting until a TV company might or might not choose them for its next broadcast.

It has puzzled me that everyone of us has to attend school from the age of 5 to 16. Everyone of us has to deal with income and expenditure, savings and loans, credit, and debit. Yet none of what we have to deal with on a daily basis in our adult lives is ever taught during our school years. I doubt much emphasis is placed on how important it is to budget your finances.

The present Government seems to think that getting further into debt is the answer to stop this recession biting deeper. Surely they would have been better off offering better incentives to businesses, so allowing them to continue trading, or new businesses to start up. Yes, there a large number of businesses caught up in the borrowing spiral, borrowing more than they can pay back. I still don't understand why banks would prefer to write off the debts to these businesses and lose all the money, rather than work with the directors of the company to work out a way of first stopping the hemorrhage of money disappearing, and then work to slowly get the business back towards profitability, and then to pay back their loans.