The Anonymous Widower

Memories Of Deauville

With the G8 summit being in Deauville in the next few days, I’m reminded of a few stories from  the French seaside resort.

The first time, C and I went, we drove along the coast after taking her first red Lotus Elan over on the ferry. It actually was the only overseas trip we did in the car, before she replaced it with the one that I still own.

We did all of the usual touristy things, like seeing the Bayeau Tapestry, the Mont St. Michel and the port of Honfleur, but two things stand out.

When we went to the races, we parked the car next to a Ferrari Testarossa.  It was immediately surrounded by French kids, which I think says a bit for the pysche of the French, who tend to prefer the small and perfectly formed like Piaf and Sarkozy. 

We also were sitting in a cafe in the main street, enjoying a good lunch, when a guy drove up on the opposite side of the street in a BMW convertible and showed everybody how to park a car in a space that was a metre or so too short. He just shunted the cars in front and behind until the space was large enough. Everybody in the cafe enjoyed it and gave him a good Gallic cheer, when he locked his car and walked away. Unfortunately, we had virtually finished lunch and had to move on, so we never saw the end of the story.

We did go to Deauville a couple of years later in my Cessna 340A with our middle son and his friend, Andy, for a day at the races. We had a good day, but at the end of the day we were treated to one of the worst displays of bad manners I’ve ever seen.

When you want to leave a small airport, you fill in all the appropriate paperwork and then go to your aircraft, request permission to start your engines if required and then when that is complete, you request permission to taxi. Deauville was quite busy that day, with several aircraft wanting to leave. So as you do, we just formed an orderly queue until ATC gave us permission to enter the runway and takeoff.

But this wasn’t good enough for one American.  He just passed the queue in his private jet and to various cries of “Sacre Bleu!” and “You don’t have permission!”, he just lined up and took off. What an idiot!

When the man died a few years ago, I actually felt relieved that such a rude man had gone.  It is very rare that I do that!

Sadly there are many more rich, famous and very rude these days.

May 26, 2011 Posted by | Business, Sport, Transport/Travel, World | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Phishing Scams From Someone Claiming to be HMRC

We all get these and some look like they come from sensible addresses like alert@hmrc.gov.uk.

Here’s a typical content.

Date 21/05/2011
A tax refund of 1560.10 GBP .(Still Pending) Due to invalid account record we were unable to credit your account Please submit a verified tax refund request.

A refund can be delayed for a variety of reasons. For example submitting invalid records or applying after the deadline.
Click the “Refund Me Now” link below and follow the on screen step in order to have us process your request.

Refund Me Now Note: For security reasons, we will record your ip-address, the date and time,Deliberate wrong inputs are criminally pursued and indicated.

 
Best Regards,
HM Revenue & Customs

They are all a scam designed to get your login asnd password to the HMRC web site.

They show all of the typical mistakes of scammers.

  1. Why would they say 2510 GBP, when the £2510.00 would probably be used?
  2. The English is a bit clunky.  But then so is a lot of Civil Servant-speak!
  3. I especially like the last bit saying “Deliberate wrong inputs are criminally pursued and indicated.” What do they mean about indicated? Does a nice young lady all dressed like Lady Gaga in leather come round and give you a ticking off?  Now that will be fun!
  4. And then there’s the Best Regards bit! Very HMRC! I don’t think!

So what should you do with these e-mails, other than comply with what they say?

The real HMRC have a page which says what to do.

Note this clear statement on the page.

HMRC will never send notifications of a tax rebate by email, or ask you to disclose personal or payment information by email.

You should never disclose your personal and/or payment information in reply to an email that may look like it’s from HMRC, you may well be revealing your details to a fraudulent website.

 

It also says you should forward them to phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk

I shall be sending a few today, so let’s see what happens.

May 26, 2011 Posted by | Computing, World | , , , | Leave a comment

Two Greedy Italians

Antonio Carluccio has said tonight, that his religion is food. So tonight he and Gennaro Contaldo are exploring Puglia looking at religion and food.

But Gennaro did come up with this glorious recipe. I’ll try it sometime. It’s gluten-free too.

Antonio seems to be rather dismissive of the religion and is much keener on the food.  I’ll drink to that!  As I sip a gluten-free beer!

May 25, 2011 Posted by | Food, Transport/Travel, World | , , | Leave a comment

Does God Believe in Arson?

I couldn’t believe the name on this picture.

Mountain of Fire & Miracles

But then I agree with Nietzsche about God. On the other hand I try to live my life against the humanist principles of some of the world’s great religions.

May 25, 2011 Posted by | World | | 7 Comments

A Left-Handed Prime Minister and US President

Watching David Cameron and Barack Obama, yesterday, it struck me as unusual that both are left handed.

Apparently, four of the last five US Presidents have been.

I also think that if you were at the sort of school attended by David Cameron, that they beat it out of you!

Perhaps things have moved on! I hope so!

May 25, 2011 Posted by | World | , | Leave a comment

Clerkenwell Design Week

I went along to Clerkenwell Design Week today, which lasts until Thursday.

Clerkenwell Design Week

It was well worth a visit and was a much more worthwhile event than Grand Designs Live.

The first thing of note, I saw was this folding chair concept called a Flux Chair from The Netherlands.

Flux Chair

This video shows how it opens and folds flat.

Now I have to admit that I like origami and a designer, Reg Bentinck I used a few years ago was a great exponent to create interest in a product.

Anglepoise is a respected British company, renowned for the famed lamp.

Anglepoise Lamps

They had a big display, with lots of new versions.  I’d love a large one in brass to go with my colour scheme in my new house.

I walked around the floors of the Farmiloe Building and saw some impressive furniture and lights, but none that really struck me for my needs. There were lots of pendant lights, which are no good for me, as I have concrete ceilings and no points wired to put any. I didn’t see any decent wall lights at all.

As I left this caught my eye.

Furniture Construction Set

It is a sort of construction set for small items developed by Pal Rodenius from Sweden. He had some clever ideas that I liked and I’ll look out for his name in the future.

A Different Approach

This idea of his, is a method for constructing objects, by cutting around different coloured lines to get a chair, a table or a desk. It is a very different approach to creating affordable furniture. I may have got this wrong, but it seems you just trace the design on a piece of plywood and then cut around the appropriate coloured line to get your furniture. See his web site for more of his fascinating work.

I couldn’t miss this as I left to catch a bus home.

A Striking Floor

it was advertising a company, who’ll put any image you want on your floor.  Like this map.

A Map as Flooring

I might go back again to dig a bit deeper. It is certainly worth a visit. Especially, if you’re interested in design, as either a practitioner or a purchaser.

May 24, 2011 Posted by | World | , , , , , | 3 Comments

Oven Gloves for the Microwave

A friend brought these back from Hawaii.

Oven Gloves for the Microwave

They do actually help, and as there are two and they are small, they could fit anywhere on my work surface to move things that are either hot or in my case cold.  Cold things like a pie from the freezer are just as painful. 

Here’s one on my left hand.

A Glove on My Left Hand

Hopefully, they will help me use my left hand better, as often I use the right, as that works well with any normal temperature.

The fingers work as you can see, but the temperature sensors aren’t that reliable. Luckily, I haven’t burned the hand yet!

May 23, 2011 Posted by | Food, Health, World | , | 1 Comment

New York Bans Smoking In Public Places

Where New York leads, the rest follow. Let’s hope London and the UK follows this one.

Three particular places, where people smoke annoy me; bus shelters, pavements where the space is limited and Greek restaurants. Last week I burned my arm on someone’s ciggy.  I was just told rudely to mind what I’m doing, but it was either bump into the obese smoker or walk in the middle of a busy main road. Luckily he got my right arm, not my left.

May 23, 2011 Posted by | News, World | , | 1 Comment

Jilly Cooper on Life

Jilly Cooper and her daughter, Emily, are featured in the Sunday Times Magazine Relative Values interview today.

Her daughter said of Jilly.

In October 1999 Mum was in that terrible Paddington train crash. Miraculously she managed to climb out of the carriage, covered in someone else’s blood, cleaned herself up and went off to her meeting. Later she was offered counselling, but said: “Why on earth would I want that. I’m alive aren’t I?” In Mum’s book, life is for living, and that’s something I absolutely love about her.

Jilly is so right.  After a tragedy, you just have to pick yourself up, dust yourself down and start all over again!

Perhaps the strangest thing about the interview is how the young Jilly Cooper looks so much like her daughter now. It’s strange because Emily and her brother were adopted.

But then C was adopted and unless you have experienced it at a close level as I obviously have, there is nothing so unlike what you think it might be, than the relationship between parents and their adopted children.

May 22, 2011 Posted by | World | | Leave a comment

The Joy Of Sox

I always read Melanie Reid in the Saturday Times.

Today she talked about her awful socks and proposed a satirical book called The Joy of Sox.

I sympathise with her.

I do my own washing and find sorting it difficult after the stroke, as it is an action that needs two good hands and I’ve only got about 1.6.  But until recently, I found putting them on difficult and spent a great deal of time finding ones that were easier than others.

But in the last couple of weeks, my hands seem to have cracked the problem and now they go on like they used to before I had the stroke.

Here’s wishing Melanie the same sort of progress.

May 21, 2011 Posted by | Health, World | , , | Leave a comment

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