Where is the Wunch Now?
So Fred Goodwin has got his comeuppance, but do you ever wonder where all the others, who are part of the same wunch of bankers as Fred, who got us into the financial mess are?
I am indebted to Citywire for the details.
It is interesting reading.
Mums Launch Student Home Swap Scheme
It’s all here on the BBC. And their web site is here at unihomeswap.co.uk.
As it says in the article it’s just returning to how it was done in the 1960’s, except that you didn’t actually swap.
For instance in my first year at Liverpool University, I was in digs at Huyton, which was quite a long bus ride to and from the City Centre. Students may moan about their lot these days, but we had a whole different set of moans and digs a long way from the University was one of them.
These days as I wander around London, it seems most students have their own room in a modern block, somewhere near their University or College. But then they are expensive.
Even when I got into Hall for the third year of my course, it was still a long way from the University.
Incidentally, C wasn’t very lucky with the digs she shared with a girl called Sandra and had terrible trouble finding something where they could stay. In one case, the landlord wasn’t a man, any sane father would let near his daughters.
I think it’s a good idea and I wish the designers of the site well.
How Do Scammers Get Your Phone Number?
I’ve had my phone number here for about six months. Usually once, a day, I’m hold I have had an accident, my Windows computer needs fixing or some other scam. I say that the phone is registered with the Telephone Preference Service and usually say that if they’re telling me I have an accident, then would they please get lost. They usualy hang up pretty sharpish.
But how did they get my number and a name to go with it?
Few people have that link except my friends and the others probably include, BT, my bank, John Lewis and a couple of other shops, and perhaps a few on-line shops and couriers.
So who got a nice kickback from the scammers to give them my phone number and name and address?
After all, a verified name must be worth a few bob. so it is worth paying for.
It would be nice to find some little tow-rag, who has sold a few names and give them a few months in one of Her Majesty’s Prisons. That would surely encourage the others!
Cyclists
The area of Hackney where I live is just north of the City and there are a lot of cyclists. Normally, there isn’t a problem, but they will sneak up the inside of say a bus that has stopped at a zebra crossing for me to cross and a couple of times, I have nearly been run over. Although, I’m a recovering sixty-odd-year-old stroke victim, I can just about cope, but there is a lot of complaints in the shops and pubs from pedestrians about cyclists ignoring the rules of the road and the pavement.
All I think we need is that everybody tries to follow what the law lays down.
Perhaps, what annoys me at the moment, is that there is building work opposite, which means there are extra hazards like delivery lorries and skips, where I cross the road. This would be fine, as usually everything is properly placed to cause the minimum of obstruction. The problem though is that so many drivers and motorcyclists use the road as a short cut and weave in and out of the hazards at speeds over the 20 mph limit for the road.
I think it would help if Hackney followed Islington and went for a borough wide 20 mph speed limit.
US’s Legacy To German Pharmacist
Obviously, it a day for German stories, this one was on the BBC.
But at least it proves there’s nothing wrong with American lard, no matter how old it is.
Hitler’s Possible Legacy for CrossRail
It is being reported that they are searching the Connaught Tunnel for any legacy of unexploded bombs from the Second World War, before they rebuild the tunnel for CrossRail.
Suppose they did miss a small one and it did a little bit of damage to one of CrossRail’s German-built TBMs.
It would be embarrassment all round!
When Was The Last Time the Met Police Commissioner Patrolled on a Horse?
At Tuesday night’s football at White Hart Lane, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Bernard Hogan-Howe was part of the mounted force policing the match. It’s here in the Metro.
It’s not the first time though that Hogan-Howe has been at a high-profile event on a horse in uniform. This is an extract from a report in the Guardian.
One of Bernard Hogan-Howe’s greatest pleasures as chief constable of Merseyside police was riding through the crowds on horseback at the Grand National. It gave him the chance to pursue his passion for horse-riding while also soaking up the very particular atmosphere of Aintree.
I’ve always felt that horses are an interesting part of a Police Force’s tools. If of course they are used properly.
But I do wonder who was the previous high-ranking Police Officer who patrolled on horse in London?
Angelo Dundee!
Angelo Dundee has died and that is sad.
The BBC has shown a clip from the famous Henry Cooper/Cassius Clay fight, where Cooper hit Clay with half a house and dumped him on his bottom. In this clip, Dundee is seen in the ring with a fag in his mouth.
How times have changed! Would any of the audience be allowed to smoke now, let alone the trainers of one of the fighters?
The Beast of Woodchester
According to this report on the BBC, the so-called big cat in Woodchester Park doesn’t exist, as only fox DNA can be found.
What a pity for Woodchester Park!
Instead of being the centre of a media storm, with satellite trucks everywhere and every Tom, Dick and Harriet ready to be interviewed by reporters from Iceland to India, some proper scientific research has left them with precisely nothing.
They will have to find some other ruse to get visitors to their oh-so boring part of the country.
The Luckiest Footballer Alive
Former Tottenham midfielder Hossam Ghaly, was lucky not to be involved in the rioting in Port Said, despite playing for one of the teams involved. Apparently, he’d been sent off before the trouble started and was in the dressing room.
Can there have been a better time and place to get a red card?
The Anonymous Widower 