Islamaphobia.....

It seems a veritable dearth of websites are popping up "exposing" the Islamic religion as a heinous blot on human society spreading like the black death did in the medieval times.....

Now I'm no fan of any religion... its been responsible for so much carnage over the years, such as the crusades of the medieval period, the Inca nation where human sacrifice was common place. Then of course you get the flip side of the coin where in this case Christian believers are put to death as they were in the Roman times. There have probably been more deaths linked to religion since man first stumbled out of his cave holding his bone knife chewing on a piece of animal hide than all of the wars put together.....

But these days it seems Islam is the punching bag of choice..... it's true the Muslim faith does seem to have an over subscription of barking nut jobs who will hack your head off in the name of Allah or detonate a few kilos of Semtex in a crowded place.along with themselves.... and why that is I don't know, you certainly don't seem to see on the news as frequently as many nutters who profess the Christian faith or say the Buddhist faith. The only ones that spring to mind were David Koresh and that Buddhist priest who set fire to himself.

I'm sure there have been others but when it comes to frequency nothing seems to match Islam... and I am genuinely intrigued as to why the religion seems to breed so many deranged zealots who are willing to commit atrocities in the name of their God, which incidentally is the same God as the Christian God, they even recognise Jesus as one of their prophets... so what is different about Islam vs Christianity that creates so many monsters in their name....??? mind you Catholics seem to harbour quiet a few paedophiles these days.....See what I mean ? Religion who needs it ????

Some do obviously and the world in some cases is a better place for it... but wanting to put people to death because they believe in something else is just lunacy... the world is big enough for all religions, and even for people like me who don't believe in any form of God or higher being ...

I cannot for the life of me see how anybody can believe in a God when there is overwhelming evidence that we evolved and were not created, but each to their own I guess, if it gives them some comfort that life is just a rehearsal for bigger and better things then so be it, as far as I'm concerned once the lights go out on this life they stay out..... and your genes live on.....some people find that thought depressing... which is probably why they need that reward/comfort in place after they die, and man is the only animal on this planet who thinks that... probably because we are the only ones to have developed higher brain function above all other animals to contemplate the meaning of life and everything .....(which as everybody knows is 42 not God)

I'm pretty certain the Muslim faith is a peaceful one having read a fair bit about it recently but the burning question in my mind is why does it produce so many who seem to think that killing other people is the answer ?

Fuel Prices & being lied to

It seems the price of petrol/fuel is climbing back up again. The local petrol station is thinking of putting up one of those 1970's digital clocks, you know the ones which flip over the numerals like a flip book to keep up with the ever increasing price changes...

There is an ever growing Facebook group which as of the date of this blog post has very nearly 1/2 million members gained in only a few days which can be found here ......they are planning a protest on the 1st of May 2010 although how they are going to protest when blockading of oil refineries was made illegal under the terrorism act is beyond me, they are bandying about go slows and boycotts of various fuel companies.... all of which will have little if any impact on changing the price of fuel......I've got to be honest the only real thing that will work is the blockading of refineries even if it is illegal, if enough people swamp the refineries the police simply won't be able to cope... but that takes anger on a par with the miners strike or the poll tax riots, and we've got a way to go before people get that angry, but with petrol prices expected to rise to £1.60 a litre this year... I don't think it's far off to be honest, judging by some of the comments on the group.....

It is quite ridiculous the amount the UK pays for fuel it has an extortionate amount of tax on it, and to be honest the Anthropogenic global warming doesn't really carry much water any more.... when you consider that 16 of the largest super tankers sailing the seas as we speak produce as much pollution as ALL of the cars in ALL of the world... yes you heard that right SIXTEEN ships, not sixteen thousand ships.... just SIXTEEN !!! you can read about it here 

So all of those measures with catalytic converters and increased road tax and taxes on road fuels all in the name of "saving the earth" a lot of expense to the public could have been saved and the worlds pollution cut by 50 percent simply by taking 16 ships out of circulation or changing the fuel they use. 

But why do that when governments can squeeze every single last penny in tax out of us on an ongoing basis until the day we die ??

Apparently the ships pollute so much because they use the dirtiest fuel available called bunker fuel basically what is left in the refineries after all of the higher grade fuel has been removed.... so basically the dregs  or tar rich in sulphur and other carcinogenic compounds.

Anyway the cost of Petrol in Australia is 65 pence per litre or roughly half of what we pay here in the UK..... and in fact we pay more than 65p in tax per litre over here... than the Australians pay for in their fuel alone....

I suspect Nu Labour and Crash Gordon are gone after this election and to be honest good riddance... long live the next useless bunch of money grabbing pocket liners... whoever they may be.....

Bring out your dead ......

Being a man I tend to put off going to the doctor until it's worthwhile....or completely necessary...... you know get your monies worth by having several ailments fixed at the same time... Well today was the day. So here they are listed in order of pain felt and severity....

1. A ripped rotator cuff in my shoulder again
2. Right lower mandible joint infection
3. left inner ear infection
4. Right inner and outer ear infection
5. slight eye infection (both corners of each)
6. nostril infection (both)

It seems that I'm in a pretty bad way and the doctor was amazed that I'd managed to drag my sorry backside to the surgery.... obviously whichever bacterium has landed on me it's taken a fairly good foothold in me...

I have been given a plethora of drugs to ingest, rub in, squirt on and in ..... and in such quantities that it would make a Columbian drug cartel jealous.... I have to admit I should have gone sooner but I'm a fool to myself I convince myself it's not serious and think "Ohhh it will be fine or better tomorrow" .... alas it hasn't been ....

I'm convinced it's the same bug that gave me the most horrendous hacking cough which I recovered from, the other infections however I haven't been able to shake off.... overall I feel pretty dreadful but I've still got my sense of humour... I think .......

Tis the end of the world.... (honest) and other palindromes

7 reasons the world will end in 2012

Scientific experts from around the world are genuinely predicting that 3 years from now, all life on Earth could well finish. Some are saying it'll be humans that set it off. Others believe that a natural phenomenon will be the cause. And the religious folks are saying it'll be God himself who presses the stop button...

1. Mayan Calendar



The first mob to predict 2012 as the end of the world were the Mayans, a bloodthirsty race that were good at two things:

Building highly accurate astrological equipment out of stone and
Sacrificing Virgins.

Thousands of years ago they managed to calculate the length of the lunar moon as 329.53020 days, only 34 seconds out. The Mayan calendar predicts that the Earth will end on December 21, 2012. Given that they were pretty close to the mark with the lunar cycle, it's likely they've got the end of the world right as well.


2. Sun Storms



Solar experts from around the world monitoring the sun have made a startling discovery: our sun is in a bit of strife. The energy output of the sun is, like most things in nature, cyclic, and it's supposed to be in the middle of a period of relative stability. However, recent solar storms have been bombarding the Earth with so much radiation energy, it's been knocking out power grids and destroying satellites. This activity is predicted to get worse, and calculations suggest it'll reach its deadly peak sometime in 2012

3. The Atom Smasher

Scientists in Europe have been building the world's largest particle accelerator. Basically its a 27km tunnel designed to smash atoms together to find out what makes the Universe tick. However, the mega-gadget has caused serious concern, with some scientists suggesting that it's properly even a bad idea to turn it on in the first place. They're predicting all manner of deadly results, including mini black holes. So when this machine is fired up for its first serious experiment in 2012, the world could be crushed into a super-dense blob the size of a basketball.

4. The Bible says...

If having scientists warning us about the end of the world isn't bad enough,religious folks are getting in on the act as well. Interpretations of the Christian Bible reveal that the date for Armageddon, the final battle between Good an Evil, has been set down for 2012. The I Ching, also known as the Chinese book of Changes, says the same thing, as do various sections of the Hindu teachings.

5. Super Volcano



Yellowstone National Park in the United States is famous for its thermal springs and Old Faithful geyser. The reason for this is simple - it's sitting on top of the world's biggest volcano, and geological experts are beginning to get nervous sweats. The Yellowstone volcano has a pattern of erupting every 650,000 years or so, and we're many years overdue for an explosion that will fill the atmosphere with ash, blocking the sun and plunging the Earth into a frozen winter that could last up to 15,000 years. The pressure under the Yellowstone is building steadily, and geologists have set 2012 as a likely date for the big bang.


6. The Physicists

This one's case of bog-simple maths mathematics. Physicists at Berekely Uni have been crunching the numbers. and they've determined that the Earth is well overdue for a major catastrophic event. Even worse, they're claiming their calculations prove, that we're all going to die, very soon - while also saying their prediction comes with a certainty of 99 percent- and 2012 just happens to be the best guess as to when it occurs.

7. Slip-Slop-Slap-BANG!

We all know the Earth is surrounded by a magnetic field that shields us from most of the sun's radiation. What you might not know is that the magnetic poles we call north and south have a nasty habit of swapping places every 750,000 years or so - and right now we're about 30,000 years overdue. Scientists have noted that the poles are drifting apart roughly 20-30kms each year, much faster than ever before, which points to a pole-shift being right around the corner. While the pole shift is under-way, the magnetic field is disrupted and will eventually disappear, sometimes for up to 100 years. The result is enough UV outdoors to crisp your skin in seconds, killing everything it touches.


Note: This was posted just for a general chit chat. The post was not meant to scare anyone and I personally believe that the world is NOT going to end in 2012. .... or is it ? .... personally I think the British government will do anything to get out of paying for the 2012 Olympics considering the massive debt they are in..... I'm pretty sure the Trident program is due to be retired soon... such a waste......what does this button do ? :) :)

I'm still dead.... apparently...

Well according to Her Majesties Revenue and Customs at least...

Some of you may remember a post I made on here back in June 2007 and how hilarious I found it that HMRC had given me the black spot and killed me off. Which in turn had meant that they didn't bother sending out a self assessment form because they didn't have a forwarding address...

And some of you might remember how I wrote to them explaining that I wasn't in fact dead or anywhere near it (yet) and they wrote a humorous letter back apologising for killing me off and stating that they would remove the late filing penalties (£200 !!)..

I thought that was the end of my untimely death throes concerning the HMRC....

Oh no.....It's never THAT easy dealing with the British tax juggernaut is it.....

They've outdone themselves yet again... I received a tax repayment because I had overpaid my tax in 2008/09 probably because of the emergency tax they had slapped on me... even though I was dead in their eyes....Amazing isn't it how they can happily collect tax from dead people ? .....

That is when I noticed they had deducted £200 from my repayment !!! I rang them up and had a very funny conversation with the woman on the end of the phone... basically I would have to appeal again even though I did in 2007 and they said they would waive the penalties... the thing was you can only appeal within 30 days of a penalty, but when I explained that I had and the reason for appealing in the first place was because I had on paper at least shuffled off this mortal coil... she seemed to think that death was a pretty good set of mitigating circumstances for HMRC to remove the penalty charges again....

I did ask her if this time they could write their apology in blood and that I had the option to take their Chief Operating Officers first born child and sell it into slavery if they went back on their promise again.....

We shall see where my second appeal against my untimely death gets me this time.......

Seems like I have a fight on my hands

Some of you may remember "Puff the magic dragon" the Peugeot 106 diesel we had before " Duran Duran" Well quite some time ago we sold it for spares because the engine had blown we diligently sent off the V5 to the DVLA to register the change of ownership and thought that was the last we saw of it....

Oh No... it's never that easy is it ?

Several months later we got a Late Licensing Penalty off the DVLA £40 at first then rising to £80... They stated they hadn't received the change of ownership (V5) So we sent off a photocopy of the original document and on the 9th February 2010 we got our acknowledgement letter stating we were no longer the keeper of the vehicle.... Thinking "there that's it.... it's sorted" we forgot about it.....we've just received a Final Reminder stating that ... and I quote

We have to pay £80 NOW !!! or

1) Your vehicle could be clamped, which would incur further charges

2) Your vehicle can be removed and may be destroyed, should you fail to pay the costs to remove the clamp

3) You could be subject to a county court judgement which will seriously affect your ability to gain credit in the future.

4) The debt can be passed to a debt recovery agency

All frightening stuff eh ? except.....

1) We don't have the vehicle any more and couldn't tell them where it is

2) They are going to find it hard to remove a vehicle they couldn't find to clamp, therefore
destroying it except by laser beam from a military satellite is about their only option

3) before you can be given a county court judgement you have to go to court and be proven guilty of an offence not as they are assuming that you're guilty until proven innocent....

4) They say debt but that hasn't been proven in a court as of yet, it's just a penalty at the moment and one given on very shaky ground

The thing is the DVLA cannot and is not able to under law (yet) able to issue a fine only a County Court can do that, they can issue penalties but that is a civil matter not criminal.... They seem to forget the Interpretation Act 1978 which states

"References to services by post

Where an Act authorises or requires any document to be served by post (whether the expression “serve” or the expression “give” or “send” or any other expression is used) then, unless the contrary intention appears, the service is deemed to be effected by properly addressing, pre-paying and posting a letter containing the document and, unless the contrary is proved, to have been effected at the time at which the letter would be delivered in the ordinary course of post."

The service in question is SORN'ing or Change of Ownership via surrender of your V5......so "notifying" falls under "or any other expression used" and therefore unless the contrary intention appears the DVLA will have to prove that I didn't send the V5.....

So basically the act of me posting the V5 ensured that I adhered to the law, their insistence that it was my responsibility to check that they had sent an acknowledgement letter is not a requirement under current law. So the ball is firmly back in their court....

What maddens me is the fact that they know that previously the vehicle was SORN''d and they also know that the vehicle was sold and disposed of prior to any tax becoming liable or any requirement for SORN... they have now acknowledged that I'm no longer the keeper of the vehicle but ONLY since the 9th February 2010.... even though they know the new keeper has had the vehicle since it was sold many months previously.... on a point of principle I'm going to let them take me to court over this.....

Apparently I'm not in a minority on this late licensing penalty business, they sent out over a million of the things last year ....and it all hangs on whether you get the acknowledgement letter or not..... so if they send it and you don't receive it, or you send your V5 and it never gets there or you simply forget about it after sending your V5.... You can be sure you'll get a late licensing penalty at some point.... The wonders of an automatic database mailing penalties out to law abiding citizens eh ? lets face it if somebody isn't bothered about taxing a vehicle then they aren't bothered about insuring it either and the fact that DVLA send out penalties will simply be laughed at by them.... so no ....this late licensing penalty scam they are running is nothing more than a stealth tax, They've admitted that they lose 1 in every 5 documents for SORN or V5 change of ownership.... that's a bit worrying isn't it ?

it's raised a lot of tax if you multiply that by £40 or £80 a pop.... the thing is I'm not the kind of person to take something lying down, if just rolled over like they are expecting me to and pay the £80 penalty it's admitting I did something wrong.... when I haven't... I should imagine a lot of people just pay it to avoid the hassle... again... that's not my style

I'll keep you posted as to what happens

Penblwydd Hapus (to me)

Well that's it I've officially hit the middle ages at 47 years young it only seems like yesterday that I was 46 ;¬)

I certainly don't feel any different, but then again you never do, do you ? inside this creaking body is a 21 year old I can assure you..... but with 26 years experience behind it .....

I got a bottle of Jack Daniels from my parents, a neck, shoulder and back massage booked for me in town tomorrow off my better half, a pair of slippers off the kids and a box of peanut brittle (my utter favourite sweet of all time) from Freya and £25 from Andrea's mum and dad so not a bad haul for a 47th birthday :) :)

Anyway enough of the birthday stuff it's just another day really, I've never been big on birthdays especially my own.....

Well it's a cracking day today if a bit cold, but there isn't a cloud in sight the the Sun is fighting it's way through the early morning haze here in Wales. I think spring is officially here proper today..... lets hope this summer isn't a total washout like last year was.... Thankfully the Met Office have stopped giving long range forecasts so maybe the weather will behave this year :)

I've been watching that program on TV about a TV called Eddie Izzard running around the UK doing a marathon a day .... hat off to the guy he's one determined bloke I didn't realise he was 47 years old as well..... whatever age he is he's made a brilliant and very gritty achievement, I think lots of people would have given up in the first leg of the round trip of the UK..... respect !!!

Oh well on with the day........ :)

There is nothing

as miserable as a child with an ear infection.... Calpol and Nurofen barely touch it and the misery just increases ..... I've dosed her dodgy ear with Gentisone HC now I've identified what's causing her misery.... the diagnoses was complicated by the fact that her ear had a small patch of rough skin behind it which she said was hurting her..... so we assumed that is what she was complaining about until I moved her ear about and she screamed out loud....but poor little mite she's also got the most enormous back molar coming through as well... so the pair are probably related....

Time will tell... Thankfully she doesn't complain about the ear drops.. she says they tickle.... so that's a good thing.... much better than having the screaming abdabs any day....

Andrea and her Dad should be back soon from their half marathon .... the roast dinner is on complete with crackling !!! and by the sounds of it Freya's Nurofen has kicked in (....it must have she's gone from a tearful clingy two year old to a gobby half pint whirlwind screeching her head off) ...

The Xbox recluse and his girlfriend are preening each other in the front room watching "Aliens" how romantic......I'd go in and sit with them to watch it but I'd find it hard to keep my breakfast down not that I find Aliens disturbing or horrifying ... it's the preening .... ahhhhh young love, so intense..... so short lived.... like a tungsten bulb filament exposed to oxygen.....

2.9 billion miles and £198 million pounds

For something smaller than this full stop >.<

which has been collected by the spacecraft "Stardust" and sent back to earth which was launched on the 7th February 1999....

The thing is they think the two specks they have are from the same particle....unlucky !!! ..... exciting stuff eh ? ....(not)

I'm all for science and exploration but I fail to see a bigger waste of money than pouring nearly 200 million pounds (300 million dollars) to collect two specks of dust from a comets tail.... Well OK the CSA(CMEC) probably have a less impressive record and in the long run it's probably cheaper to collect space dust than child maintenance payments though the CSA/CMEC Anyway ... life goes on....

Andrea and her Father are running the Llanelli Half Marathon tomorrow, she should do a good time I have every faith in her abilities she's going from strength to strength... She had her photograph taken the other day for the Carmarthen Journal so hopefully her article should appear in there at some point....so that should help with fund raising. She hasn't got long now to hit her target for Asthma UK ... I'm sure she will she's one determined woman....

I had the most hilarious encounter on Facebook the other day, and I mean I laughed till it hurt...... somebody added me as a friend I knew who they were immediately...I did wonder why they were trying to add me as a friend but I thought what the hell lets see what he has to say for himself.... The conversation went like this....

Friend : Hi.... your name rings a bell I'm sure you were in the same regiment as me 1981 - 84 ??

Me: Yes I was.... I remember you

Friend: This is really bugging me now because I have a feeling we got on really well but I can't for the life of me place you .....

Me: I remember you vividly although I knew you as "Chappie" are you still married to the same woman ?

Friend: God your memory is good ....Yeah we've been married coming up for 37 years now....

Me: Congratulations..long time.....I only managed 22 years..... I've remarried now, I traded the old model in... lol... you knew her"

Friend: did I ? who were you married to back then ?

"I was actually laughing out loud at this point...he had no a clue who he was talking to......"

Me: Yup you did....

Friend : What was her name my memory isn't as good as it was....I'm 50 years old now after all even if you tell me I probably won't remember...

Me: She was called Debbie she worked in the NAAFI

long pause........

Me: are you still there ?

Friend: Oh Sh!t ... sorry....look I've got to go.....

Me: it's water under the bridge Chappie it happened a long time ago..... forget it ...

long pause

Me: are you still there ?.....

That's the last I heard from him he then removed me from his friends list and blocked me .... the moral of the story is "Beware your sins will find you out".... I suspect his wife still doesn't know what he got up to in 1982 (or thereabouts) or with who ....and neither was he giving her the remotest opportunity....The funniest part thought was that he couldn't remember what he got up to either until I jogged his failing little grey cells......

Small world isn't it.....

Blessed are the bread makers

I made bread today albeit in the automatic pour all the ingredients in press a button and the magic begins Anthony Worral Thompson Breadmaker... I also made Jelly with Freya although that turned into a bit of a disaster, because after I had cut up all the jelly into cubes Freya insisted on putting them all into the jug shouting "My do it ... DADDY!!" and she did the usual of trying to stuff a sly cube into her mouth in the process.... I stopped her.... she threw a mini strop and flung half the jelly cubes on the floor.... Roxy of course who doesn't miss a trick snaffled the lot of them before I could even turn around.... because in Roxy's world anything that hits the floor is hers.....

So a much reduced in size jelly was produced for tea later on that day.... but Freya was happy... The bread has turned out ok as well... but when you're following destructions not a lot can go wrong really....we shall see.....

I've been busying myself with Andrea's running club website

http://www.emlynrunners.co.uk

They have wanted one for a long time to put up news of events and race timings and pictures etc and being the resident and (unemployed) IT guru it's the least I could do... I got the bare bones up and running and Andrea has done most of the content... it's not long now before the big day in London when she runs the London Marathon 7 weeks or so I believe..... I won't be able to cheer her on but I'll be watching it on TV with Freya .... Andrea's Mum and Dad are doing it as well (yes they are both nutty runners in their late 60's early 70's ... and very good runners too !!) along with a friend of ours Nicola... lets hope it all goes smoothly for her.... she still has quite a bit of fund raising to do, but I'm sure she'll do it in the end... so if any of you fancy digging deep... or even shallow throw some cash to this web page to help her on here way :)

http://www.justgiving.com/Andrea-Brabrook/

Hopefully she'll get her article in the Carmarthen Journal and that might boost the donations......I'm really proud of my wife ..... but shshshshsh don't tell her she'll get ideas above her station :)

/set hint mode on

As for me.... my 47th birthday is looming fast on the 9th March as for birthday presents well anybody who is wondering what a man who has everything would like....that's easy one of these would crack a smile from ear to ear ----> OX accelerator spring No 6 <---- PS/ there are two types the standard OX No 6 and the OX accelerator No 6 only the accelerator type fits my rifle :) /set hint mode off