Outwitted by a 6 year old!
Last night big'un had one of his friends over. After they had spent ages on the computer playing the Madagascar game it was time for me to take "N" home. Having never been to N's home before, I asked him his addresss "103 blankety blank drive" he replied. A quick check with wifey confirmed this to be correct.
Off I went with big'un and Little'un in tow aswell. For about the last 20 mins or so Big'un and N had been having a right laugh saying silly names and shouting things out, generally being silly and giggling. I ask N to tell me to stop when we reach his house,
"There it is, number 105" he says.
"I thought it was 103"
"no, it's 105"
"I'm sure you said it was 103" I say as I start to unstrap the kids outside No105. By this time I'm starting to doubt myself and I'm thinking was it 103 or 105. Anyway the decision was taken out of my hands. I let N and Big'un out of the car and told them to wait on the pavement while I was letting Little'un out, you know what kids are like they like to see their friends right into their own houses. N and Big'un ran up to No105 and started to ring the bell and shout their silly names through the letter box.
"what on earth is going on N?" says the man who answered the door,
"I've got the wrong house haven't I?" I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me. I turned to N and said
"I think you owe your next door neighbour and apology" to which he replied
"I didn't know"
"you don't know you own house?" I was now even more embarassed. Five minutes later after I had finished apologising I returned N to his own house.
" N played a bit of trick on me" I said to his parents "I've apologised to your neighbour"
Damn these clever six year old's and their fiendish tricks.

Internet Security.

A couple of weeks ago at college Big Ron gave us his guide to safer internet usage. If you shop or bank online there are some simple precautions you should take. So after reading a post on Gemmak's blog I have written it up and added some extra advice.

Big Ron's guide to Safer surfing (with extra bits added by Mick)

1. Always use a credit card not a debit card. A debit card is a way straight into your bank account, with a credit you are protected against internet fraud. If you have more than one credit card always use the same one for internet shopping. This makes it easier for you to spot any thing odd and makes it easier for the authorities to track if you are unlucky enough have any problems.
2. Make sure you have antivirus software installed and running. It's not enough to install your antivirus program and forget about it, you have to keep it updated with the latest virus definitions and you have to regularly run a scan on your system. If you shop or bank online you should run a scan at least once a week.
3. Make sure you have a firewall. The windows XP firewall is not enough!. Windows firewall will block attacks coming in but will not stop any info going out of your PC. If you use broadband you should get a router, typically these will have an in built firewall and a hardware firewall is generally better than a software one, (but have a software one aswell). Something else to do is to configure your firewall to block confidential information, I use Norton firewall and you can enter things that you would like blocked e.g account no's, credit card no's, names, addresses. When entering the info you want blocked don't enter the full card number for instance just half of it. This way you are not storing the full number.
4. Have at least 3 different anti-spyware programs installed, keep them up to date and run scans with them at least once a week. You can get Ad-aware, Spybot search & Destroy and the Beta of Microsoft's anti-spyware all for free. Use more than anti-spyware product as they all seem to find different things.
5. Keep Windows up-dated, make sure you have all the latest patches from Microsoft.
6. Never ever respond to or click on links in E-mails claiming to be from E-bay, Paypal, your bank or anything else you might be signed with that threaten you with account closure if you don't update your details. These are Phishing scams intended to trick you into entering confidential info on a fake website. Some of these mails are not as obvious as the threatening ones and can be a lot more subtle. For example last week I got a mail "from Ebay" inviting me to become a powerseller, all I had to do was "click here" to log in. This was to me an obvious fake because, I don't even near qualify to be a powerseller. Here's a good tip to spot the fakes. If you remember that the wording of the link is just text (e.g above where I have linked to gemmak it says "gemmak" and not the actual address of her blog) so anyone can type in https//ebay.co.uk/ login but the link will take you somewhere else (clink on the link to see). If you are using Outlook for your e-mail when you hover your mouse pointer over a link a tooltip should appear and this will reveal the actual web address (this may work in other mail applications , but as I don't use them I can't say). Remember a genuine mail from your bank or ebay or whatever will never ask for your passwords etc or issue you with threats if you don't update your details. To be safe don't click on links in e-mails, go to the site you want by typing it into your browser.
7. Don't save passwords or personal details on your computer. If you really can't remember them then just note cryptic reminders that no one esle would understand or know. Also don't allow windows to save your passwords.
8. visit www.grc.com and do their sheilds up! test. This scans your computer for open ports and gives you a rating. Anything less than 100% stealthed (all green) is not good enough. If you get less than this score you need a firewall.

Generally speaking shopping on the net is far safer than handing over your credit card to someone who then walks off to process it. Don't get too paranoid, unless you indulge in file sharing, P2P or porn in which case you can't be paranoid enough.

Stolen from Gemmaks' blog...

ABC's of me,

A. Ambiguous
B. British
C. Clever ( or so I like to think)
D. Doughnuts mmmmnnnn.....
E. Enthusiastic
F. Freaky
G. Geeky
H. Humorous
I. Impulsive (like just spending £500 on a tent when we've never been camping as a whole family)
J. Jolly
K. Knackered (permanently)
L. Long sighted
M. Mick
N. Naughty
O. Open minded
P. Philosophical
Q. Quidditch ( I love Harry Potter)
R. Realistic
S. Short
T. Terrible (at knowing what Wifey wants)
U. Unavailable
V. Vague
W. Wild
X. the company that I work for, that shall not be named.
Y. Yikes!
Z. ZZZzz.......

Get yer motor running,
head out on the highway,
looking for adventure,
or whatever comes my way.


The bike is back on the road, MOT'd , taxed, shiny, sexy and fast (a bit like me).
Ken can shove his Oyster card up his arse and I don't care what the hairy busker musically murders anymore 'cos I won't be there to hear it.
The only good thing about using the train for a month was that I was able to catch up on some studying.
So until the snow and ice arrive I'll be on two wheels enjoying the freedom of the road and avoiding myopic pillocks in cars.

I'm getting really fed up on the train now

• front brake seals - Done
• front brake pads - Done
• brake light switch -Done
• oil and filter change - Done
• Spark plugs - Done
• rear Chain sprocket - Done
• rear brake pads - seized beyond belief into the calipers and utterly impossible to be replaced (by me anyway)
• BUGGER!

So I'm currently stuffed as the bike won't pass the MOT without the brake pads being changed and I can't get the little buggers out. So I have asked a mechanic I know who does private jobs at home to look at it this weekend. I've still got the front sprocket and chain to do and hopefully I'll get these done tonight after work.

At least the Hairy Busker hasn't been around this week.