Elliott Rodgers

For months I’ve been working away on a big web project that I plan on launching soon, one of my nightmares has been that my laptop which I’m pretty much reliant on packing up. 99% of data is backed up so my data, customers data etc is all secure.

As soon as my cash is flowing a bit more ‘in’ and less ‘out’ I was planning on buying a desktop… Sadly today my laptop packed up completely. It randomly turns itself on and off and fails to boot. At the moment I have no contingency fund, no emergency fund and am writing this on a laptop I borrowed for a week.

This is understandably far from good. To say I am not amused is understating it a little.

Just a short note to wish all my fellow Methodists around the world a happy new year. Let’s hope it’s a blessed one for all of us.

Like the HM The Queen, Sheppie has two birthdays. One his actual birthday is lost in time, his “official” birthday is the day I got him. This makes him 5 today.

The last two years has been the whole range of things, good and bad. Sheppie has been a best friend, supplier of furry hugs, given his furry shoulder to cry on and someone to have lots of fun with. We’ve both nursed each other through injuries and illness (his a badly damaged and infected dew claw; mine a broken toe on two occasions, a bad chest infection and the usual gut problems). He’s also been a willing (and occasionally unwilling) subject of many photos.

Man’s best friend – doesn’t quite really seem to describe it enough.

a company called SAS Fire and Security is cold-calling residents in the Chiltern district and offering to install ‘free’ security systems with a ‘small’ ongoing monitoring and maintenance cost. The company claims the security systems are being offered as part of the Crimestoppers summer campaign which Chiltern District Council and Thames Valley Police are currently taking part in. This is not true, SAS Fire and Security has nothing to do with this campaign. If you are approached by SAS Fire and Security or any organisation you are unsure about, please don’t let them in your home or give them any of your personal details.

You can contact the community safety team at Chiltern District Council on 01494 732089, call Consumer Direct (Trading Standards) on 0845 404 0506 or call the Thames Valley Police on 0845 8 505 505.

I’ve restored the Precious Gifts page along with a new gift and an old gift…. If you don’t know what I mean then you probably not meant to… If you know me very well and want the password send me an email or message me on Facebook.

I’m getting a little better, I’m still pretty weak and feel tired all the time. I can eat now without having to rush to the bathroom five minutes later which is a massive improvement.

So things should start getting back to normal over the next few days.

Spent most of the day in A&E. Am unwell with more of the usual gastric intestinal stomach type trouble so will be away for a few days a week or two.

anyone in the area of Lowndes Avenue, Beechcroft Road in Chesham please check sheds, garages etc,. for my neighbours missing cat, small black and white, with limp on front left paw answers to “spot”… He “belongs” (as much as a cat belongs to anyone) to Colin, a neighbour of mine.

If you have any information please leave a message for me on the contact form.

If you are based in Chesham area please pass this information on via blogs, Facebook and Twitter.

I’ve set up the following short url – http://bit.ly/cheshamlostcat to this post.

The cat returned home, late last night!

As it puts it on the TV licensing website: You need to be covered by a valid TV Licence if you watch or record TV as it’s being broadcast. This includes the use of devices such as a computer, laptop, mobile phone or DVD/video recorder. So if you watch a live TV channel from Germany at 1am in the morning on your iPhone over the internet, legally you need a TV Licence (at your residence) even if you aren’t at home. If you do you are committing a criminal offence which could make you liable to imprisonment and leave you with a criminal record. Few commercial companies have such vast powers.

(Seriously you want me to have a licence to watch TV over the internet that isn’t even from the UK on a tiny mobile screen phone when I am at home, madness?!?! Seriously?!?)

Of course if like me you only use BT Vision+ (or a similar system) to watch programmes that are on BBC replay or iPlayer (ITV Player, 4 on Demand, Five on Demand etc) then this is not live television and so doesn’t require a TV Licence. BBC do however state in their T&Cs for iPlayer on their website that you have to be a UK TV licence holder to use iPlayer and then further down in the small print it says you only need a TV Licence if you use the Watch Live simulcast option or you watch any part of a programme while part of it is still being broadcast live on television. Confused? If you are that’s their intention. They imply that watching any TV programme while part of it is being broadcast is considered ‘live’.)

The BBC uses a lot of pseudo legalise jargon to try and add to the “deterrent” effect and imply that their “enforcement officers” have far more powers than they actually do. TV Licensing is a trading name for a company called Capita Business Services Ltd (registered company number: NF004206; no nature of business given and registered address in Northern Ireland) acting as an agent for the BBC. If a TV Licence “investigator” turns up on your doorstep they will use bullying tactics and intimidation to convince someone they HAVE to let them into your property and to sign a “statement” or “paperwork”. Legally you don’t have to do either. They have no legal right to enter your home without a warrant. They are extremely unlikely to get a warrant since in order to do this they would have to reveal how they got the evidence, to date it would seem that they have never actually got a warrant to enter someone’s house if anyone knows of a case please feel free to correct me.

Only around a quarter of people visited by TV License Investigators/Enforcement Officers et al are found to require a licence. This means that by the BBC’s own figures on average they unlawful harass more than half a million people a year! In 2005, a TV Licensing officer was found guilty of false accounting and perverting the course of justice after he deliberately forged the confessions of four people to obtain commission payments (I’ll bet there’s been a lot more of those). Yes you read the correctly – TV licensing officers get paid a commission ~ some officers are self-employed and are paid £20 if the resident signs up to a direct debit, or £18 if they pay in full there and then. Others are paid a mix of salary and commission, including that paid if a prosecution occurs. Explains why some residents are bullied into paying. They can’t force you to sign any piece of paper either, not even the police can force you to sign a piece of paper!
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In Chesham where I live we’re lucky enough to have a beautiful park, Lowndes Park. Chesham Town Council do a brilliant job in keeping it as nice as possible with the limited resources.

So why is it that some people can’t be bothered to do the simple and put there f***ing litter in the bin! There’s bins all over the park and some are strategically located by the exits. You have to walk past at least one bin to leave Lowndes Park. Is it to much to ask for people to take their litter with you to the bin?

Dozens of people walk their dogs in the park every day. Within ten minutes of the centre of Lowndes Park there are fox dens, Badger sets, Muntjac Deer, Red Kites and lots of other wildlife. Many of them bringing up young. When you drop your litter you potentially endanger all of the animals. Surely for that reason alone it’s worth picking up your litter?