Innocent until proven guilty?

Last October was a bad month for me personally.

My car failed it’s MOT test spectacularly, we had no car for weeks, and I found my great uncle dead in his armchair.

I borrowed my Dad’s car and someone crashed into the back of the car whilst we were in it. The persons who crashed into us refused to believe it was at all their fault, and in fact blamed me! They refused to give their insurance details, and instead called the police. The police gave us ‘producers’ (an order to bring all driver and vehicle documents to a local police station within seven days).

Claire suffered whiplash during the accident, and by evening we had to go to Casualty (E.R.) to get her some medical attention. She had to take the following week off work.

My Dad found the documents for his car, and discovered that I was not named on the insurance, due to a cock-up on the part of the insurance company. Unfortunately my Dad had not checked the policy to ensure that I was named on it, as he had requested, and thus I was not insured to drive the car. After a meeting with the attending officer I was cautioned for the offense of driving without insurance. My Dad was also cautioned for permitting his vehicle to be driven without insurance.
All this amounted to a six-month wait to see if the Crown Prosecution Service would summons us to court.

On the very last day of the six month period we received a summons. Today was our court date.

After weeks of worrying and stress the day finally arrived. The first time I met our solicitor (lawyer) was today - fifteen minutes before the court appearance.
The whole court experience was very daunting and intimidating, and not one which I would choose to repeat.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, our solictor did a sterling job of representing us, and succeeded in getting us a pleasing verdict: Absolute Discharge.
That means that we are not going to be fined any money, or receive any points on our licences, or banned from driving. And it proves that the law (specifically the Police) were too harsh to prosecute us.

What a waste of public money, resource and time! But also what a relief for us!

I call it ‘Sofa Surfing’

Sofa Surfing

Originally uploaded by swingnut.

It’s not as if we haven’t got the space for study (although I’ve decided to turn that space into an orphanage for dolphins this week), or that we have a great need to be plugged into the net 24/7.
It’s just that we’re of the digital age; the www kids. (And we’re geeks.)

So. I’ve located the iMac on the coffee table, the Quicksilver next to the other sofa with TFT monitor on wall bracket for handiness, and the powerbook ‘floats’ between kitchen, dining room and lounge

Sad, yes - I know. But it is rather convenient and cool!

Wasting my energy

Millions of keystrokes everyday, amounting to not very much at all.
108 motion-sensor office strip lights that have no off switch, even in the broad day-light of summer.
A drought and hose-pipe ban in a country where rain fall anually floods many villages and towns, and where the inadequate surface drainage system damages roads and greenland.
Opposition and reluctance to use wind-generated energy yet anger at rising energy costs.
One cardboard recycling skip located 10 miles out of town, to serve an entire city.

This BBC news article is very inspiring. It talks about Smart Meters which can show the amount of energy each device in a home is consuming; how much it is costing; how much energy was used over the past 24 hours; and it can even be calibrated to show estimated carbon emissions.

"At the moment, there is a box underneath the stairs which they cannot make head nor tail of because it is all in kilowatt hours, and a quarterly bill that may or may not mean anything to them."

"If people do not have any idea how much energy they are using, how can you expect them to change their behaviour?"

Worth a read.

Changing my name

When I decided to start this blog I had a painfull time trying to decide what to call it. There are millions of blogs out there now, and a lot of them have cool, witty, clever names to invite you in. I had to think of something that was all those things, and which also related to, or described, me.
People who know me well will tell you that I have a very poor memory, and I also sometimes have trouble conveying my point in conversation (i.e. Doing a ‘Ross’), hence the title I finally decided on: ‘Before I Forget’.
I was quite happy with this title, in it’s own humble little way.
That was until yesterday when I did a random google search and discovered that some clever so-and-so has already used this very same name for their blog, and for quite some time. Also, that blog is a wordpress blog too.
BAH!

I can’t leave it at that. I have to do something about it. And since it’s my fault, the only thing I can think of is to change my blog name. :/

So. Here we go again. But this time I’ve got the help of all my friends/blog-readers to help me! I should be inundated with suggestions within minutes! (As if).

So if you have a suggestion, please leave a comment.
I thank you kindly.

Update:
After days of sorting through sacks of mail, we have a winner! 5 year old Steve Harris from Swansea sent in his smashing suggestion which impressed all the judges and was chosen to be the new name of the blog: iStrop. Thanks Steve! Your iStrop badge is in the post.

Catching dog pee

It’s not easy. Not easy at all.

DO: wear protective gloves, wellies, goggles, waders, ear-muffs and a water-proof jacket.

DON’T: try using a 500ml plastic Evian bottle to capture said pee, and expect to succeed.

The urine sample I need to give the vet tomorrow will take some time to capture…

Update:
Well, I managed to capture a sample of dog pee. Jack was NOT impressed, to say the least. I wouldn’t be too impressed either if someone tried chasing me around the garden, thrusting a Tesco bag in a waste-paper bin under me every time I tried to pee.
Anyway, after much fun I managed to get a very small and pathetic sample of pee from him. I was really embarrassed to hand it over to the vet, and even more embarrassed when it leaked all over my bag, hands trousers, exam room floor, and Jack’s head.

Should Gower be give National Park status?

I noticed this BBC article this morning. 

Since 1956 Gower has been designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), which makes it the 50 year anniversary this year.

Members of the Gower Society are taking the opportunity to call for National Park status.

I think this is a good idea, and will benefit the area in the long run.  We should take better care of the fantasic place we live, and perhaps this is the best way to do that.

The last thing we want is for local authorities to buckle under commercial pressure, and grant permission for a monstrous carbuncle to be built in Gower, ruining the landscape, and putting the existence in jeopardy.

Any thoughts on the matter?

Update:

The BBC News website has added another article on this issue.  This article doesn't add much more but is interesting nevertheless.  It also touches on the environmental effects on Gower from radical changes in climate.

Worth a read!

Fame! Fortune! Feathers!

I’m a director, don’t you know!

The fun begins if you click me…

What a tw@t!

I’ve just realised that up until now I’ve got the basic theory of photography all wrong: I somehow had it in my head that the smaller the aperture number (the f stop number) - the smaller the opening. In fact it’s the other way around: The smaller the F-stop number (or f/value), the larger the lens opening (aperture).

WHAT A STOOPID OOPID TW@T!!
All this time!
Why on earth I got it the wrong way round I do not know.
That explains why I’ve been so confused when experimenting with light, and why when I’ve taken an identical photo with different aperture settings i’ve not got what I expected.

Bedroom dilemma

Tomorrow we shall mostly be shopping for a new bed.
Don’t ask how it broke - it just did - quite spectacularly actually.
The thing is though, I’m very tempted to not buy a new one but instead weld the metal leg back on with some extra supports…

Red light jumpers

This really pisses me off.

(And - No - I'm not talking about some wacky Noel Edmonds style apparel;  I'm talking about drivers who disobey road traffic lights that display a red 'Stop' light.)

Because I travel to and from work everyday right through the busiest part of the city I get to see a lot of bad (and good) drivers and habits, and I'm sure that over the past few years the average driver in Swansea has got a lot worse.  It's like everyone is a budding taxi driver, FFS!

Bad habits seem to be out of control, and everyday I can guarantee that I see or am involved in at least one potential accident.

Today, for example, I witnessed a very foolish man drive into a box junction when his traffic light was displaying amber.  This meant that he was travelling through the box junction on a red light. 

Although this particular person did not technically jump a red light, he did the next worst thing: jumping an amber.  Now amber lights are there for a reason: they provide a buffer of a few seconds for traffic to clear and enter a junction space.  They also provide an important signal to the driver approaching the traffic lights which should result in the driver ascertaining whether it is safe to stop before the junction, or, if the vehicle is particulary heavy, whether it is safer to continue through the junction post haste.

What the amber signal does NOT do is tell the driver it's okay to behave as if you have a green signal, and that you should speed up in order to take advantage of the window of opportunity.

I've tried to understand why the recent years have shown a trend increase in bad driver habits, but it's not clear cut.  It could be due to the fact that the average vehicle is faster and quicker now, or that the number of motorists have increased which causes denser traffic at peak times, and therefore a slight change in driver attitudes (i.e. 'Road Rage').

Perhaps it due to the fact that local policing has changed over recent years with the introduction of many more static speed cameras, and less police presence.

Whatever the cause one thing is still true: driver's bad habits appear to be more prolific, and that can only result in danger to drivers and/or pedestrians.

 P.S.  I'm seriously considering taking my camera with me whenever I'm in the car, and taking photos of examples of the kind of stuff I see everyday.  (Obviously I'd take care not to cause any unsafe or dangerous situation by using a camera whilst operating a vehicle ).

I dunno?….