I decided the other day to clear up my finances, get rid of the mess and make a cull in all those dodgy direct debits I had in my bank account.

I challenge you to have a look at your finances and see how many companies have a wide-open back door to your money.

Paypal

I have been a avid user of Paypal for years and always tried to use it to pay for on-line purchases if at all possible. However recently I had a problem with a company that I had a subscription with through Paypal, more precisely with the Paypal recurring payments. Unbeknown to me at the time they hide the fact that you had a recurring payment (a subscription) deep down in the History section of your account. If you do not look really really carefully you might be led to believe that the recurring payment is not active any more and you could forget about it. This was not the case as I regretfully found out.

I would expect Paypal to have a clear list of ALL your recurring payments (they are basically subscriptions with a different name) on the Profile section, not hidden so deep that even as a long-standing customer could not find them without getting help from internet forums.

The problems is that being human you forget what you are subscribed to by the time you should have noticed it and perhaps acted on it – like cancel the subscription. You might not even know where the subscription was set-up and how you are supposed to cancel it. The company I had the subscription with was also very sneaky and deeply concealed instructions on how to cancel the subscription and made the procedure complicated.

When I decided to start clearing the debit card and bank account connections in Paypal I started getting e-mails that  some of those connections could not be cancelled as there were outstanding payments. That turned out to be not the case. One of the warnings I had was completely false and I had to remove the associated card with the help of the customer support. The other warning was about some old recurring payment I set-up with my website hosting provider. Doesn’t instil confidence in the reliability of the Paypal service.

When I was finally able to cancel my account I received two e-mails about additional TWO subscriptions that got closed when the account was closed. Where did the y come from and how come I didn’t know about them.

That motivated me to go to my online bank and cull all direct debits that either were not supposed to be there, like my O2 mobile phone membership that I cancelled last year, and my Privilege car insurance that I also cancelled last year. Do you know these guys keep the direct debit going on for at least a year after you cancel the account – just in case they need to rip you off a little more. Because that is just what I want really – an open door to my bank account. If they do take the money then I wish you good luck on proving you did not authorize the payment and even more luck to get a refund.

M25 parking lot on December 18th Photo: TOMMY HINDLEY

There were plenty of warnings about possible weather problems before I set off from Haverfordwest in the SW Wales to Stansted airport on December 18th. There was very little snow in Pembrokeshire and the airport was open. There were absolutely no problems up to the M4 exit for Slough.

Photo taken on my iPhone of the M25 standstill

Then it all started to slow down and by the time I got to theM25 exit on the M4 the traffic stopped. We managed to somehow move a little so I was mostly on the M25 slip road but that was it until about 16.45 when we slowly started moving. We more or less crawled on the M25. Managed to see the remains of the burned-out people carrier that caused all this mess – it was just near the M40 junction on the M25.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

The Highway Agency was warning there were problems on the northbound M11 so I decided to take the A10 and A120 roads that ended up being very snowed up but at least empty with no accidents on them. I arrived at the B&B near Stansted called Puttocks Farm at about 8.30pm – about 10 hours after I left Haverfordwest. The trip usually takes me 5 – 5.5 hours.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

To top it all the next day I couldn’t get a taxi to take me from the B&B to the airport about 10 minutes away. They were taking orders only after 2pm but that would be to late for me. Luckily the B&B owner gave me a lift so I didn’t have to leave my car at the airport costing me £13/day. And to top that as well the place was 2 hours late due to some engine problems – apparently something refused to start up in the plane. The passenger next to me remarked that the pilot just couldn’t find the reverse gear and in the end somebody else told him.

Unfortunately my GMail account martin [dot] mcdowell got somehow hacked today and someone (or something) in China sent a spam message to all my 119 e-mail contacts in my address book at 15.35 this afternoon. The IP address the hack originated from was 115.52.213.93 and is assigned to the Chinese ISP CNC Group CHINA169.

It looks like there was a Google-wide attack as their systems crashed. There are several reports of hacked accounts on Google forums. The message was just a spam and did not contain any viruses or worms in itself.

Subject: How are you doing,my dear friend?

How are you doing,my dear friend?

I am really happy now because i got my new iphone.haha…

I really want an iphone,you know that,right?

And i just found a cool place to buy it with a cheaper price.

<www.newelecn.com>

Hope you can have a look.

Have a nice day and best regards!

For what its worth I have reported the matter to the police and I have also got in touch with the attacker’s internet service provider China 169. Unfortunately I have no suggestions, other than change your password regularly, on how anybody else should avoid this specific attack as I am convinced that both my computers are clean, one of them is even a GNU/Linux machine! I take security quite seriously but I do apologize to anyone who received this spam from my e-mail account.

Here is what I saw when I tried to access Google calendar about the time of the attack:

Update 24 November 2010

The one thing that angered me was that Google has a unusual activity detection system and even though I was on GMail at the time of the attack I saw no warnings. In fact the only warning I received as about 7h later at about 10pm. The original access table said the Chinese access came from a browser, now it says its ‘Unknown’.

Gospa Hamer, žena vrtnarja v majhni južno-valežanski vasici, naj bi ponoči sanjala o dečku, ki se je izgubil slab mesec poprej. Ko se je le opogumila in prepričala moža, da ji pomaga, se je 2. septembra leta 1900 skupaj z nekaj sorodniki odpravila na lastno iskalno akcijo. Ko je skupina z gospo Hamer na čelu prispela do grebena nad jezerom Cwm llwch, okoli pol kilometra zahodno od vrha gore Pen-y-fan, je gospa Hammer naenkrat zakričala od groze. Malo stran ob poti, kjer je hodila, je namreč ležalo trupelce izgubljenega petletnega dečka Tommya Jonesa.

Pen-y-fan je najvišja točka gorovja imenovanega Brecon Beacons ki pokriva večji del južnega dela Walesa in skupaj z malo nižjim dvojčkom z imenom Corn Du tvorita čudovit razgled, ki bolj spominja na površino lune, kot pa na zeleno valežansko hribovje. Malo ob poti na vrh Brecon Beacons boste našli manjši obelisk, ki so ga postavili po končani iskalni akciji izginulega dečka Tommya.

4. avgusta daljnega leta 1900 se je oče, po poklicu rudar, odpravil skupaj s svojim petletnim sinom Johnnyem na obisk sorodnikov na kmetijo nekaj kilometrov južno od mesteca Brecon. V Brecon sta prispela z vlakom okoli šestih zvečer, do kmetije pa ju je vodila šest in pol kilometra dolga pešpot. Okoli osmih zvečer sta prispela v danes podrto vasico Login, kjer je bila v tistem času nastanjena vojska, ki je imela višje v dolini strelske vaje.

Zgodba se zdi močno oddaljena in življenja takratnih prebivalcev so že dolgo pozabljena. Prav tako se zdi, da na večer 110. obletnice Tommyevega izginotja njegovemu obelisku delajo le dežne kaplje in ovce na paši.

Bila sta namenjena v še danes obstoječo majhno kmetijo z imenom Cwm-llwch. Od Logina do kmetije je bilo le okoli pol kilometra rahle hoje navkreber. Kljub temu, sta oče in sin za nekaj časa postala z vojaki in se okrepčala. Čisto po naključju, pa sta takrat v Login prispela še Tommyev dedek in 13-letni bratranec Willie John. Willija so poslali nazaj domov v Cwm llwch, da družino obvesti o skorajšnjem prihodu sorodnikov, za njim pa je stekel tudi mladi Tommy. Pot je bila za Tommya kar strašljiva, saj sta morala prečkati dve brvi postavljeni med gosto pozidanimi stavbami. Ena od brvi ni imela ograje in vse skupaj je bilo preveč za Tommya, ki je planil v jok. Želel je iti nazaj k očetu v Login. Dečka sta se zato ločila: Willie John navkreber po dolini proti kmetiji, Tommy pa nazaj navzdol v Login. Willie je v kmetijo prispel okoli petnajst minut potem, ko je zapustil strica in dedka, mladi Tommy pa v Login nikoli ni prispel.

Sam sem bil v tej dolini v mesecu, ko je Tommy izginil in v večernih urah, okoli osme zvečer. Dan v Walesu traja precej dolgo in ob osmih je svetlobe še veliko, se pa sonce hitro spusti za zahodnim grebenom Pen Milan in stemni se precej hitro.

Ko sta oče in dedek tudi sama končno prispela na kmetijo in ugotovila, da je Tommy izginil, sta ga začela takoj iskati. Po kakih dvajsetih minutah so se iskanju pridružili še vojaki iz Logina. Iskanje so prekinili ob polnoči, a ga že tri ure kasneje nadaljevali. Iskanju so se ta dan potem še pridružili še policija in sovaščani. Tommya nikakor niso našli in tako se je nadaljevalo iz tedna v teden.

Vsak dan so sistematično preiskali dolino in okoliške travnike, porezali grmovja, in prečesali gozdove. Porodila se je celo ideja, da bi preiskali tudi dno jezera Cwm llwch, vendar je prevladalo mnenje, da petletni deček zagotovo ni uspel priti tako visoko v dolini. Predvidevali so, da se je ob poskusu vrnitve v Login izgubil in šel predaleč v dolino ali pa je celo ob prečkanju brvi padel v vodo. Iskanje so zato osredotočili na dolino in celo do mesta Brecon. Ker dečka še vedno niso našli, so se porodile ideje, da so ga ugrabili – to je bilo za svojce tudi zadnji up, da bi Tommy še našli živega. V tistih časih so bil glavni osumljenec za taka dejanja okoliško Romsko prebivalstvo. Tudi preiskave njihovih naselbin niso obrodila sadov.

Zgodba je seveda prišla v medije in časopis The Daily Mail je ponudil nagrado, njihov predstavnik pa je tudi aktivno sodeloval v iskalnih akcijah. Po tednih iskanja je bil Tommyev oče primoran zapustiti dolino in se vrniti domov v Maerdy, vendar se je uspel kmalu vrniti in sodelovati v nadaljnjih iskanjih. Bil je tudi eden redkih, ki so se pri iskanju povzpeli na vrh Pen-y-fan.

Ravno približno v tem času pa je imela gospa Hamer svoje razsvetljujoče sanje, kjer je v njih videla mesto, kjer leži Tommy. In tako se je okoli mesec po izginotju – 2. septembra še z nekaterimi drugimi svojci podala na iskanje visoko v dolino Cwm llwch in na greben nad njim.

Trupelce mladega dečka so še isti dan prenesli v dolino.

Obelisk, ki je bil postavljen na mestu, kjer so našli Truplo Tommya Jonesa kaže kako zelo blizu so morali biti iskalci, ko so prečesavali greben. Leži skoraj čisto na poti do vrha Corn Du in Tommyev oče je bil verjetno le nekaj metrov stran, ko ga je iskal. Iskalci so verjetno videli le nekaj podobno skali v visoki travi.

Sledil je sodni postopek, kjer je bilo kmalu potrjeno, da je deček umrl zaradi izčrpanosti in podhladitve. Nihče pa ni mogel jasno razložiti, kako naj bi tako majhen deček uspel priti tako visoko, ko pa je bil namenjen dol v dolino. Trupelce je bilo najdeno na nadmorski višini 700m, ker je pomenilo 400m višinske razlike z vasico Login, okoli tri in pol kilometra hoje čez strm in težko dostopen teren in to v precejšnji slabi vidljivosti. Najverjetneje se je Tommy potem, ko sta se ločila z Willie Johnom, izgubil, ko je prečkal prvo brv nato pa namesto, da bi prečkal drugo brv skrenil na levo in se potem “zahodil” v zahodni greben Pen Milan misleč, da se dejansko vrača priti kmetiji. Dečka je povrh še najverjetneje zajela panika in skupaj z vedno slabšo vidljivostjo je nadaljeval pot proti grebenu Cwm llwch. Danes žal vidimo, kako dolgo je zdržal in kako daleč je uspel priti.

Dečkova družina je več let hranila črtasto obleko, ki jo je takrat nosil skupaj s piščalko, ki jo je imel na sebi in bi mu verjetno rešila življenje, če bi jo bil uporabil preden je omagal od izčrpanosti.

Porote so v tistih časih dobile nezanemarljivo denarno nadomestilo za svoje delo in porota, ki je sodelovala pri preiskavi Tommyeve smrti se je plačilu odrekla. Denar, skupaj z drugimi prispevki okoliških prebivalcev (ga. Hamer se je prav tako odrekla precejšnjemu delu nagrade, ki jo je ponudil The daily Mail) je šel v postavitev obeliska, ki so ga postavili julija naslednje leto – 1901. Obelisk so morali zvleči gor s posebnimi sanmi in konjsko vprego.

Od takrat je obelisk spomnil na tisoče planincev na dečka, ki je v rokah hribovja Brecon Beacons podlegel izčrpanosti in podhladitvi.

Obelisk z dolino Cwm llwch pod njim

Napis na obelisku:

This obelisk marks the spot where the body of Tommy Jones aged 5 was found. He lost his way between Cwmllwch Farm and the Login on the night of August 4th 1900. After an anxious search of 29 days his body was found on September 2nd.

Vir:

1. Victim of the Beacons
2. Wikipedia

Had the misfortune to have to take my close relative to the emergency department (urgenca) in the main Ljubljana hospital (Klinični center). She was showing signs of severe pain and the symptoms were progressively getting worse by the hour. Not that she would have particularly like to but she really needed to see somebody as this had never happened before and the condition was causing her a lot of worry. Besides, of course, being in excruciating pain.

I have heard bad things about the Ljubljana EMT from various people and it was all from years ago. With all the political will in the background you would have thought that would have improved by now. It turned out nothing could be further from the truth.

Despite the EMT waiting room being relatively quiet she had to put in agonizing three hours of waiting before being seen. Now I do understand that some cases need priority but to leave someone in so much distress for such a long time and not even a proper apology is in my opinion professional misconduct. It was blatantly obvious that the EMT department was under-staffed but a lot of employees that were there just simply didn’t care!

In our desperation we asked some nurses that were in the EMT corridor about how long we would have to wait and they in a sarcastic manor told us they are from a different department. Not a hint of compassion or understanding. It all seemed like a big joke to them that we asked them in the first place.

After she received an injection of pain relief she was told to wait in the waiting room for half an hour in case of any allergic on anaphylactic reactions to the drugs she was given. This was also supposed give the staff time to write a report called an “izvid” that you are supposed to give to your GP. Instead of half an hour we had to wait another 3 hours and would probably would  have to wait even longer if we wouldn’t have left.

I work as a veterinary surgeon in a veterinary practice for companion animals and I can assure you that if I dared pull a stunt like the Ljubljana EMT did with my relative, I would very quickly have found myself in front of the RCVS disciplinary committee. I can assure any reader of this article that we treat our patients much, MUCH nicer with tonnes more compassion and professionalism.

If I was a patient in such a situation I would probably would be begging to be euthanized but I would probably get a faster service if I flew to Switzerland straight from the waiting room.

If you are living in the UK you probably know about the very well known and advertised car windscreen repair company. You know the one, I you watched 30 seconds of telly you probably saw one of their adverts.

I was on board with the thought that if you have a chip in your windscreen then you should have it repaired before it turns into a crack.

Well today I found out that sometimes fixing it can turn it into a crack – a 17cm one.

As a small chip on the left side of my windscreen was repaired today it cracked and the repair guy stopped the procedure straight away. It was recommended to me to have the whole windscreen replaced. Am sort of sorry I had it fixed now as I am quite sure the chip would be quite stable for a while. Good news I have fully comp insurance so it only costs me the £75 excess and they will come and do it at my home on a Saturday

V sredo, 24. marca 2010 je v Walesu v veljavo stopil pravilnik Valežanske Skupščinske Vlade (Welsh Assembly Government), ki prepoveduje uporabo elektronskih (električnih) ovratnikov pri psih in mačkah.

Ti ovratniki se v večini primerov uporabljajo za odpravljanje neželenih vedenjskih navad pri psih. V skupščinski debati so utemeljili pravilnik s tem, da so ti ovratniki nepotrebno mučenje živali in pogosto ostanejo orodje lenih in brezbrižnih lastnikov, ki ne znajo odpravljati neželenih navad pri svojih hišnih ljubljencih na noben drug način.

Storilca, ki krši ta pravilnik lahko doleti zapor do 1 leta (51 tednov) in/ali denarna kazen do £5.000 (~€5.700)

Wales je prva država/pokrajina znotraj Velike Britanije, ki je uvedla takšno prepoved. Organizacije, ki se borijo za zaščito živali, se zavzemajo za takšno prepoved v celotni Britaniji.

That these collars are no gentle persuasion tools can be discovered by watching people trying them on themselves. In this video the guy tests it on himself and it starts at about 3.30 min, but you can watch the whole thing, I don’t care. This other video is shorter and its tested by a girl.

Both the above videos are actually very funny as they are done under consent, but it does have a serious back tone as dogs probably wouldn’t be so prepared to wear them.

Aja, pardon, sem šele zdaj opazil, da sem gornji del začel pisat v angleščini. Se mi ne ljubi zdej spreminjat.

• Uradno sporočilo za javnost valežanke skupščinske vlade: http://wales.gov.uk/topics/environmentcountryside/ecnewsevents/ralatestnews/walesbansshockcollars/?lang=en
• Po dolgem iskanju na straneh Valežanske skupščinske vlade, sem pravilnik dejansko našel na OPSI strani: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/legislation/wales/wsi2010/wsi_20100943_en_1 (različica v PDF)
• Novica na RSPCA strani: http://www.rspca.org.uk/media/news/story/-/article/EM_ElectricShockCollarBanInWales_Mar10
• Kampanija v Kennel Club: http://www.banshockcollars.org.uk/
• Novica na BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8584028.stm

I was sending a letter to Slovenia as I have done so, oh so many times through the local Post Office.

This time I was also returning a book to Amazon at the same time and I only later realised that I was given a »certificate of sending« for the book I was returning and not for the letter. I went back and received a hand-written “copy”. OK, thought nothing of it and forgot all about it …

.. until I received the letter back through my door saying:

There isn’t enough postage on this Airmail item so we are returning it to you. To resend it, please take it (with this label still in place) to a Post Office branch and pay the missing postage, or contact us on 08457 740 740.

Aaaargghhhhhhh #$%&/(!!!

Calmed down and called the Royal Mail, they told me I will have to resend the letter, but I am eligible for a £5 compensation. I just presumed the letter was not weighed correctly. If its under 20g it costs 56p, more if its over that weight. Instead of going to DHL (by the way the documents inside were relatively important) as I should have done, I went to the main Post Office in town and they said it is 56p as it is weighs only 15 grams!!!

Aaaargghhhhhhh #$%&/(!!!

A weird thing happened to my today. My pay-as-you-go phone that I recently had to transfer from MobileWorld to TalkMobile got barred (blocked) by the phone company.

I didn’t even realise anything was wrong until I tried using the phone this afternoon. Called TalkMobile and they told me that their fraud department reported fraudulent activity on my phone. What exactly that meant they either couldn’t tell or chose not to tell me. They did however instruct me to go to my nearest Carphone Warehouse shop to have the SIM card unlocked.

So I went and the very kind and understanding manager there had to wait on the phone for over half an hour to get it sorted. For reasons still very unclear to me the phone number was on a list of suspicious numbers. The number was quickly reactivated and I hope from now on it stays like that.

In my humble opinion I think there was just a cock-up at MobileWorld. First they had problems transferring the account to MobileWorld and then there was a problem with on-line topup. Despite me informing them of my current address they still had the old one on the system.

Good luck to anyone else this has happened to.

Update 6-Apr-2010

While I was travelling round Snowdonia and staying in Beddgelert where there is absolutely no Vodafone signal I thought that was the reason I wasn’t seeing the mobile operator “TalkMobile” displayed on the phone. It turns out they barred me AGAIN after 3 days after the first time. At least this time I had to call back the next day to sort it out and didn’t have to waste my time by having to trot my way to downtown Haverfordwest

Taken from Google StreetView

Google StreetView’s coverage has been extended to about 90% of the country and that now includes Haverfordwest and Pembrokeshire. The images are pretty high quality. I have heard there is a bit of an anomaly with the High Street in Pembroke Dock as part of it was filmed in once season and the other part in another, with Christmas decorations still visible.

Taken from Google StreetView

As I did and most of the people I showed this to, also did, we went and had a look where we live and where we used to live. So go on, knock yourself out.

http://maps.google.co.uk/

Photo: The Sun

This was the first time I have gone to a headlining stand-up comedy show. The one in the comedy store in London was similar in ways very very different. This was in a proper theatre and there was no intimidation or any kind of boo-ing coming from the crowd. In fact there was a fare bit of very well humoured picking of certain members of the crowd from Dara’s side.

I have seen Dara on many TV shows, primarily on Mock the Week. By the way, I hope to see his former colleague from that same show Frankie Boyle, next month in Swansea. The show itself was great and the seat I had was very good, quite close to the stage, but not close enough to be picked on – or spat on: In some of Dara’s exuberant verbal outburtsts there was some obvious salivary discharge being made and very visible from the angle I was seeing it from (sorry Dara .

As I am reading his wiki page I see he is only 8 months older than me. I feel quite humble, but I do beat him in the hair quantity department At least something. As many will know he actually is a very tall fella and as he stands on the edge of the stage he looks even more imposing. You wouldn’t want to be in a fight with him, he’d probably beat you in a second flat.

His tour has only just began and it will be going on all over the country. See Dara’s personal website for more info.

Danes, 30. septembra 2009, se izteče rok za oddajo vlog za gostilniški netačaj, kjer je glavna in edina nagrada – gostilna sama. Cena za vstop v natečaj je bilo 20 funtov in število sprejetih vlog je omejeno na 30.000.

Kot rečeno bo zmagovalec natečaja postal lastnik gostilne The Plash Inn & Brewery Cottage, ki se nahaja v majceni vasici Llanfallteg v Carmarthenshire-ju v Walesu. Skupna vrednost celotnega objekta je 300.000 funtov. Če torej prodajo vse karte potem bi lahko trenutni lastniki lahko dobili celo dvakratno vrednost nepremičnine. Število kart, ki jih je lahko kupil posameznik, ni bilo omejeno in tako si je lahko vsak še povečal možnost za zmago.

Več na www.winapubinwales.co.uk

Posodobitev:

Gostilno je zadel g. Borley iz mesta Swansea.

OK. I know the general population in the UK likes to talk about the weather and this passtime seems to have crossed over to me also, please allow me to indulge in some well deserved criticism of the atmospheric and environment conditions of this Christmas in Slovenia.

When I arrived in Ljubljana there was loads of snow around and still snowing as I was getting home and the outside temperature at a very chilling -10°C.
Took me a few hours to get our drive and parking area cleared of all the snow. I should have just left nature take its course as a few days later the higher temperatures came to about 13°C. The snow almost instantly disappeared.

I was half expecting signs of spring showing up.

————–

At home now – took me much less to get to Wales from Stansted – only 4 hours 35 minutes and that meant an average speed of 64.4 m/h. The time actually included  a couple of stops.

V Veliki Britaniji že nekaj Božičev zaporedno prihaja na britanski glasbeni lestvici do nadvlade pocukranih komadov iz tovarne pocukranih komadov Simona Cowell-a in njegovega X Factor glasbenega show-a.

Tudi za letošnji Božič je kazalo, da bo zopet zmagal njegov protežiranec in zmagovalec Faktorja X – letos je to uspelo Joe McElderry-u. Račune mu je prekrižala zelo odmevna Facebook kampanija Jona in Tracy Morter, imenovana Rage Against The Machine For Christmas No.1. Po 13. decembru, to je datumu, po katerem se začnejo šteti nakupljeni singli v okviru glasbene lestvice za Božič, je bilo potrebno preko katerekoli spletne trgovine z MP3 skladbami kupiti komad Rage Against the Machine imenovan Killing in the name. Na tak način naj bi uspeli spravit ta komad na prvo mesto namesto singla Faktorja X.

To jim je to soboto tudi uspelo. Povzetek zadnjega dela oddaje, ki jo je ustvaril BBC Radio 1 lahko slišite tu http://bit.ly/ratmbbclive

Kar očitno je, da skladbe, ki jih skoraj po SAW principu izdeluje Faktor X, gredo marsikateremu močno na živce in številnim se ni zdelo škoda tistih 50 do 99 penijev, ki jih je bilo potrebno plačati za komad Killing in the name. Še več. Vzporedno s to kampanijo je prej omenjena Facebook skupina spodbujala kupce komada “Killing in the name” da prispevajo kak funt v dobrodelne namene, in sicer bolj konkretno organizaciji za brezdomce Shelter.
Uspelo jim je namreč zbrati čez 80.000 funtov.

Poleg tega pa so 17. decembra imeli na BBC Radio 5 Morning show v živo predstavo iz Los Angelesa. Producenti so skupino prosili (mogoče celo zahtevali) da ne kolnejo. Če poznate pesem Killing in the name veste, da je kletvica “Fuck you, i won’t do what you tell me” integralni del skladbe in to so seveda zapeli. Voditelja oddaje so jih po hitrem postopku odrezali, kar se na spodnjem posnetku ne sliši. Res bi rekli, da so si sami krivi. Lahko bi iskali namig v skladbi in tako vedeli, da se ne bodo ravnali po navodilih drugih.

http://www.rockpit.com/ratm/index.php

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After all the worries about traveling from Haverfordwest to Stansted the 5 1/2 hour trip went fine. Blue skies in most of the Wales part, the first snow on the M4 spotted about 6 miles west of the exit for Slough.

The roads are gritted and the only delay was on the M4 exit for the M25. It looked like a Smart car caught fire. It was being extinguished on the side of the motorway just as I was passing by.

The worst bit is right here at the b&b near Great Dunmow – snow stuck to the road and very slippery.

More snow forecast for tomorrow so not sure if my flight for Stansted still on.

Update 19 December at 10:30

Freezing cold in Great Dunmow -6C, clear blue skies and no fresh snow – at least not here. There is a fresh snowstorm in Ljubljana so anything is possible (delay, cancellation, reroute …). What a coincidence, was having breakfast at the b&b this morning with a lovely couple from Preston and were actually on the same flight as I. What now, is everyone going to Slovenia (or should I sat maybe NOT going if the weather has its way).

Update 19 December at 11:50

OK, we are now designated as late. Estimated departure time 13:00

Update 20 December in the morning

OK, after all the snow tears and swear words I’m finally in Ljubljana. Sorry I missed the skydiving film festival though. Off to clear the white stuff from the all so long drive soon.

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Logic dictates that an e-book should be cheaper than its paper counterpart, yes? One of the main reasons why people should buy e-book readers is the fact that you don’t have to pay for the overpriced printing and hopefully can save a few trees at the same time. OK, lets ignore the fact that a lot of books are already made from recycled paper and that making an e-book reader creates a marked size number 11 carbon footprint of its own.

This was why it was very surprising that I found an e-book on Waterstone’s website that was more expensive than the printed version.

As you can see the cheapest paperback edition is £4.79 and the e-book edition is £6.25. This screen capture was taken after calling the following URL.

I have looked around the website and could not find this repeated again. I would welcome anybody else’s feedback. Has someone found the same anomaly?

I did contact Waterstones and this is what they said:

Dear Martin,

Thank you for your email.

I am sorry to hear that you are unhappy with the price difference between Waterstones.com and our High Street stores.

There are a number of reasons that there are different prices online to instore. Firstly there is the difference in overheads, and secondly there are the negotiations that take place through Waterstones.com . We have a buyer who negotiates different special deals and promotions for the site outside of those negotiated for the high street. All our books are sourced from one third party distribution centre, which in itself allows reductions in price that are not always seen in the high street stores. We also compete in an online environment that is very different to that of the high street.

That said I appreciate that sometimes this can be a confusing message when coming from the same company so please accept my apologies for any disappointment or confusion caused.

Kind regards,

[name witheld by blog author]
Customer Service Team
Waterstones.com

Fair enough. I hope this will not be a common discrepancy, otherwise I cannot see myself getting the currently overpriced e-book reader that are marked at about £200.

Verjetno bi se mnogemu zdelo vprašanje manjkajoče kratice strokovnega naziva nepomembno ali pa celo na robu postavljaštva. Meni se je to dolgo zdelo in zato nisem ukrenil kaj dosti, ko sem ugotovil, da mi lokalna ustanova, ki kontrolira veterinarje v Veliki Britaniji, Royal college of Veterinary Surgeons ali krajše RCVS, kratice ni dodala v svoj register članov. Trenutno je navedena le kratica MRCVS, kar pomeni “Member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons”.

Ko sem najprej opazil manjkajočo kratice sem jim napisal e-pismo a nanj nisem dobil nobenega odgovora. Na vse skupaj sem pozabil dokler nisem pred kratkim dobil neko potrdilo o izobraževanju s področja zdravstvenega zavarovanja hišnih ljubljencev. Na potrdilu je zopet manjkala kratica naziva. Močno mi je smrdelo po tem, da so avtorji potrdila kopirali vsebino RCVS registra. Ker sem imel vsega že malo dovolj sem tokrat poklical RCVS. Obljubili so mi, da bodo zadevo preučili in me poklicali nazaj. To so tudi storili kako uro kasneje in mi sporočili da mi kratice “dr.vet.med.” ne morejo priznati, ker le-ta ni navedena v ustrezni Evropski zakonodaji (2005/36/EU). Prav tako pa kratica ni navedena na diplomi, kar naj bi bil tudi težava. Oboje je seveda res, kratica je splošno priznana, ni pa nikjer uradno zabeležena, ne v EU direktivi, ne na diplomi.

V upanju na pomoč sem pisal dekanu Veterinarske fakultete (VF) in bivšemu dekanu VF, ki mi je podpisal diplomo, v tem času pa je bil v službi vlade, kot minister za kmetijstvo.

V odgovoru VF so ponudili, da mi izdajo potrdilo o kratici v angleškem jeziku za €50. V odgovoru MKGP-ja oz VURS-a pa mi predlagajo naj pridem ponovno v stik z RCVS, češ, ali sploh sprejemajo/priznavajo prej omenjeno potrdilo VF. Za vsak slučaj sem potrdilo dvignil ob naslednjem obisku v Sloveniji in ga po najkrajši poti poslal na RCVS.

No, kak odgovor sem dobil:

Dear Martin

Thank you for your recent letter and the ‘certificate’ from the Dean of the University of Ljubljana confirming that the approved post-nominal for the primary veterinary qualification is DrVetMed.

We have looked into this further with interesting results.  As indicated to you in August, EU Directive 2005/36/EU does indeed not list this post-nominal against the entry for the Ljubljana qualification. However, having now also looked at the The Veterinary Surgeons’ Qualifications (European Recognition) Regulations 2008 – which transpose EU Directive 2005/36/EU into UK law – the table of qualifications herein does list ‘DrVetMed’ alongside the qualification.

Whether it was omitted from EU Directive 2005/36/EU in error is not clear but, in short, we will add this to your RCVS Register entry and to that of the only other graduate from Ljubljana on the RCVS Register.

Regards,

Res, da sem potrdilo naročil ne da bi predhodno vprašal RCVS ali ga sploh sprejmejo. Je pa tudi res da bi lahko na RCVS že na začetku pravilno preverili  zakonodajo in bi se zgodba lahko zaključila že pred časom. Skrivnost seveda je, od kod se jim je kratica DrVetMed (ena beseda, brez pik)  sploh znašla v britanski zakonodaji, saj to nikoli ni bila priznana kratica za veterinarje v Sloveniji in je v EU direktivi tudi ni.

Še ne vem ali bi komu težil za to ali ne. Verjetno, da ne bom, ker se mi ne ljubi in imam bolj pametne stvari za počet

After being called out, out of hours, at 8pm and then just after going to bed at midnight I was awoken by the pager at 4:50 this morning. Just as I was calling the call centre my mobile went off. This was a full-on alert. The call centre told me that they received a call from the police that our premises alarm has gone off.

First the panic set in that sort of helped me wake up a bit. I dressed rather hastily (for the second time this night) and rushed still a bit dazed to the car only to be called again by the call centre that they received another call from the police that it was not our alarm that went off but the next door’s.

A few hasty words were spoken but not directed at the person at the other end of the line. She must have heard them but unfortunately she should be considered involved in collateral damage.

I knew this might bite me in the behind if I just go back to sleep. On these occasions you sometimes get called again so I decided to check our premises anyway. Upon my arrival expecting multiple police vehicles and possibly someone from the neighbouring business, I found absolutely no one. Nada. Ziltch.No alarm was going off either. Time for a another few carefully chosen words. Then checked our place and then back home for a simulated couple of hours of sleeping. I say simulated as I actually did none.

Bring on Friday, I guess.

Moved this page from blog posts to pages. Just a technicality but the article just didn’t belong under posts.

http://blog.martinmcdowell.com/collecting-airmiles-tesco-or-shell

Just as I thought I was loosing yet another battle with a faceless corporation filled with robot drones I received some good news the other week.

The dispute I had with Ryanair about a problem with purchasing tickets from their website.Their website crashed and I was left unsure whether I actually purchased the ticket as I could not confirm the reservation through the Ryanair website using my payment details.

After trying contacting Ryanair through various e-mails that apparently don’t work I tried writing to Ryanair’s corporate head office in Dublin, Ireland. No luck.

I then also tried cancelling my payment trough my credit card company. In the end Ryanair seemed to have corrected the problem as they produced the credit company proof of my purchase and voilà – I could confirm the ticket on the website. However this was all to late as time was running out and I was forced to make alternative arrangements. My holiday was in August and I was in danger of not being able to travel at all!

Recently they seem to have updated the information on their website on how to file complaints. I wrote to the address stating the problem. Not expecting anything to happen and was preparing to accept that I just lost about £90 I was very surprised to receive an email from Ryanair:

Dear Mr McDowell,

Following your recent refund request for booking confirmation number [censored].

We confirm that your refund request has been processed back to the form of payment used to pay for your booking. Your issuing bank will take 5-7 working days to process this refund amount back to your account.

The amount refunded to your credit/debit card is GBP 89.40

Yours sincerely

Ryanair Customer Services

This still does make me completely happy. How come a customer does not have implicit rights to cancel his/her order in this case. Consumers should be better protected as it cannot be left to corporations big or small to make their mind up about it by themselves. The market apparently isn’t competitive enough or developed enough so that we can trust corporations to do the right thing. I would suggest this would be better off as a pan-EU legislation rather than leaving it to each individual EU member.

Customers are usually allowed to cancel their order without explanation as long as its not something that is made specifically for the user and/or it cannot be resold to another customer. This is clearly not the case with airline tickets as they can be resold very quickly (usually for an even higher price as these tend to be higher the closer you are to the departure date).

I really feel strongly about this as we are often, as consumers, left to the mercy of companies who can quite strongly defend their own interests – but often we either can’t defend ourselves our cannot afford it. I have been strongly tempted to get in touch with the local M.P. (member of parliament) who, in my case, is Mr. Stephen Crabb (cons).

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