30.8.03

Have you seen Mars, then? Never so close for 60,000 years they say. I saw it last night but my binoculars are only 8x40 so I couldn't see any canals, any aliens, or anything other than a slightly brighter spot in the sky than I could see with my naked eyes! That's why I'm not an astronomer: I don't have the kit! Remember the lunar eclipse of 2000 was it? It was cloudy where I was! The rest of the world saw something "brilliant" as far as I can tell. DW
It's been a bad week for sleeping this week. Wednesday morning woke up at 5:20 am for some reason. Thursday, woke up at 5:18 am; again for some unearthly reason. Friday morning I woke up at 7 am: wooohoo! Today, Dima was flicking his bedroom light on and off and then making all sorts of noises around 4:15 to 4:30 am then he went outside, into the garage ... In the meantime Mrs W, who has a nose problem, started sniffing and grunting at the same time as Dima started his peregrinations. I turned my deaf ear uppermost but to no avail: the light got me, the grunting turned into deep vibrations that penetrated my pillow; and curiosity took hold. Dima had gone to see off his friend Moh who is returning to Canada to live and just after he'd gone I got out of bed, drank a coffee, watched some news and now here we are almost ready to go and tax the car. How come no one told me that Dima was off for a pre dawn sojourn? Wonder what sort of petrol the car uses? Fancy not asking that! DW
A week ago they took away my BMW 520i to the scrap yard. Last night I took delivery of a smart looking metallic green BMW 730i ... hold your breath for the photo! Mrs W doesn't like it in the slightest. It's not a new car by any means but it's mine now and once I've taxed it and put some petrol in it, we're off. Mrs W doesn't like it but she has already planned a long trip to see one of her friends whose son brought some things back from Kazakhstan with him for her. C'est la vie! Plus ca change ... DW

29.8.03

Here's something to epitomise the standard of training in the UK's National Health Service. Took young Dima to the GP this evening to discuss his nose problem and his skin problem. We were duly summoned and arrived to find the GP and another chap seated in the surgery. "This is another Doctor (sic). He'll be sitting in." Now, we should have been asked if we minded if the other chap sat in; and even though we wouldn't have refused that's not the point. Still, I didn't make an issue of it. Then, Dima sat himself down in the victim's chair and I looked around for my chair. No one spoke and the Quack started his consultation. I saw a chair but it was piled with notes and books so I didn't feel like moving that lot. I then spotted a pink plastic footstool over the other side of the room so I went and got that, placed it next to the "other Doctor" (sic) and parked me bum! No one spoke, no one said, "Oh, sorry, please feel free to move the books ...". Just ill mannered people getting on with what they think is good for us. DW

28.8.03

Here's an entry from November 2002 On the personal front I'm nursing my back a little bit as I spent the afternoon lugging many kilogrammes of bark chippings from Garden Centre to car to garden and then all over my small garden. The chippings are the mulch for my Chrysanthemums, Roses, Peonies, Fruit Trees, Herbs and so on for the winter. Anyway, it took 750 litres of the chippings to cover the beds I needed to cover: they're heavy!! Let's hope I'm not bed ridden for a week or so and that the flowers, shrubs and trees all appreciate my hard work!! I want to report that bark chippings are a nightmare. Over the last year the birds that frequent my garden have made it their business to fling the chippings all over the place as they look under and around them for food. This means that the chippings that are generally covering a flower bed can appear overnight as covering for the lawn. Over the winter I got so sick of these antics that I left the chippings on part of the lawn for a few weeks only to find on removal that they had successfully killed all of the grass under them. Bleeders! DW

26.8.03

Here's the latest in the DW traffic survey for Abingdon: 26 August 2003. As I was returning the hire car that I'd been using over the weekend, I decided to carry out yet another of my world famous traffic surveys: how many occupants were in the cars driving towards me on the road that I was wlaking down? This survey took place between 0840 and 0848 today. I discounted all commercial traffic, hence what follows relates to private vehicles only: cars, that is; and I included a taxi! 1 car contained three people: 2.5% 3 cars contained two people: 7.5% 36 cars contained one person: 90.0% Another blow for traffic sodden Britain. We are a one occupant nation are we not? DW
The way that second hand car salesmen answer the phone is fascinating. Here's a couple of examples: Ring ring ... Car Salesman 1: Yes Me: Is that XYZ cars? Car Salesman 1: Yes Me: Do you still have that XXX for sale? Car Salesman 1: No At this point I expect a follow up with some attempt to convince me that another car they have is well worth a look instead but I got silence! Ring ring ... Car Salesman 2: Hello Me: I see that you are selling a XXX is it still available? Car Salesman 2: Yes Me: Can I come and see it? Car Salesman 2: Yes Me: Are you open tomorrow [Sunday]? Car Salesman 2: Yes Me: What time would be best? Car Salesman 2: What time would suit you? ... Where do they get their training??? DW
Before during and after all the fuss over the SOBIG virus, I have had countless messages containing it. It started early last week with messages that were typically timed to arrive as America was crawling out of bed and booting up. Then the onslaught changed to a trickle and now they are coming in thick and fast again. They are all predictably infected and my anti virus software is catching them anyway. Was not best pleased by the behviour of SpywareNuker who offered to help me find Spyware and Adware on my computer and then behaved so badly that I wrote and told them they'd never sell their product to me even though they say they have found 284 incidents of Spyware on my system. The printer won't work from the laptop at all now. Need to investigate much further! DW
Dima got his GCSE results and he's done well, with 1 A* 4 A 5 B 1 C Perhaps the highlight in some senses was the B for Maths. His teacher had called us before they entered him for the exams and said there was no way on earth that he could succeed at the higher level exam. I said we are working on it and I want him to do it. I don't expect that teacher will call now to say, "Good lad, Dima. I was wrong!" I was disappointed at the C as it was in Geography as we put in a lot of effort to get the A his teacher had predicted ... where did it all go wrong? As a non native speaker of English, let all native speakers be aware that Dima achieved 3 A grades for English! DW
The car's gone. On Friday last at around midday I arrived home after a walk into town to find my car in the middle of the street waiting to be plonked onto a car transporter as it headed for the knacker's yard. It has served me well and the only thing it has ever really let me down on was the battery. As I was a way a lot for much of the time that I owned that car, it was standing idle; and the batteries I bought never liked that. We even used to turn the engine over every week or so but that just wasn't good enough. I was forced to write off the car and was paid what the insurance company thought it's worth. I will NOT, in any way, be able to replace a BMW 520i SE Auto for the amount of money they paid. Come on down our modern insurance companies! DW