Change of venue

Sorry to have to do this but I have decided to move to another site, as from tomorrow 2nd January 2010 the new address is-

http://angusdeionallandsundry.weebly.com/all-and-sundry.html

And the new name is All and Sundry

All the blogs can be found there, and there are links to the Blogger blogs at the bottom of the home page.

The old blogs will remain for posterity, unless they get hacked again.

I know this is a pain in the arse for everyone, but things are starting to not work on blogger and security is a major factor.

Angus

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Too cold to patrol; Panda hire; Moose head massacre; Doggie paddle; and £335 a litre petrol.

So that’s 2009 out of the way and I’m not sure what to call the “new” year; two thousand and ten or twenty ten, I know which one I prefer to write.

The old year staggered out as it began-crap, but I suppose I should take some heart that I managed to piss off somebody or some “body” enough for them to try to close me down, maybe it’s the new blog- NHS Horror Stories that did it.

Still, the world keeps turning, the frost is getting thicker and my pussy is still as noisy as ever.









I see that Jack Straw has managed to annoy the entire British police force by telling them that they have the "wrong approach” to dealing with the public.

He said he was “sceptical” about suggestions that police were overworked or burdened with excessive amounts of red-tape and form-filling which forced them to remain at their desks.

Instead, he suggested they were using form-filling as an excuse not to go out on the beat. He claimed there was a lack of discipline among police officers, with "striking" differences in crime clear-up rates between forces across the country.


“Some police officers - whatever they may say - actually quite enjoy staying in the police station in the warm.”

Last night, the comments by Mr Straw, which were backed by his Cabinet colleague Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, provoked a furious row with senior police officers and politicians.

Good one Jack. That’s another few thousand votes Labour won’t get at the election

And staying with “law and order” it seems that Police forces are spending half a million pounds a week hiring cars, new figures reveal.

Forces in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland spent £132 million on rental cars in the last five years. That averages more than £70,000 a day.

The revelations come as forces are trying to save cash ahead of anticipated cuts in public spending.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne, who uncovered the figures, said: "At a time when police budgets are under extreme pressure, it seems unnecessarily lavish to be spending over £70,000 a day on hire cars.

"Hiring cars at appropriate times can save forces money but if they are being hired while police cars are not in use, it is simply a waste of taxpayers' money."

The totals were revealed in Freedom of Information Act requests to the 43 forces in England and Wales, the eight Scottish forces and the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

In total £132,312,000 has been spent on hire cars since 2004. The Metropolitan Police, the country's largest force, spent nearly £50 million on its own. West Midlands Police spent nearly £10 million in the same period.

Matthew Elliot, chief executive of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "If the bill for hire cars is going into the tens of millions, it's time the police looked again at their procurement strategy and started buying more cars rather than hiring them.

"Everybody knows that it is more expensive in the long run to rent something so the police should economise and spend our money more wisely by buying cars rather than hiring them."

A spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers said: "Obviously marked police vehicles are used daily but some aspects of policing, such as covert work, need unmarked vehicles and hiring them can be cheaper rather than owning them."

Great idea, they can hire my motor for ten grand a week.

On me head moosey

A Web designer says she was struck by the decor at a New York City restaurant - when it fell on her head.

Raina Kumra says in a negligence lawsuit filed last week that a 150-pound (68-kilogram) stuffed moose head with 3-foot-(90-centimetre-) wide antlers plummeted off a wall at the Scandinavian-themed White Slab Palace on Oct. 4 and hit her. She says she suffered a concussion and other injuries.

Never mind that was the Moose head damaged?

How many firemen does it take to rescue a dog?

A dog who slipped into a frozen duck pond escaped death after a team of 17 firefighters came to his rescue.

Matt - an eight-year-old Cocker Spaniel - ran across ice and tumbled into freezing waters in Dean Country Park, Kilmarnock.

As the dog struggled to escape, fire crews from Kilmarnock and a water rescue unit from Ayr raced to the scene after the alarm was raised.

Using ladders and specialist equipment, they managed to reach Matt and fish the shivering Spaniel out of the pond.

The firefighters were hailed as heroes by grateful owner Shelia Johnston

"I still can't believe one little dog caused so much fuss and had 17 firemen looking after him. I'm so grateful to all of them," she said.

Stevie Logan, Kilmarnock Fire Brigade's station commander, said: "The dog was in clear distress and had been in the water for some time when we arrived.

"He was trapped in a circle of water with ice surrounding it and couldn't get out.

"The people in this case did exactly the right thing by phoning us, and not attempting to rescue it themselves.

"Too many people have drowned trying to rescue their dogs, and although it is a hard thing to do to stand by and watch the dog struggling, we do have the specialist knowledge and equipment to carry out a rescue."

Well done guys and a hint to the dog walker-keep the feckin dog on a lead when near frozen ponds.

And finally for the first of 2010.

Taking the piss

Ron Wyde, 69, was buying four-star at a Morrison's store when a pipe on his petrol tank came loose.

Two litres of petrol spilled out and Mr Wyde explained the leak when he paid at the kiosk.

He waited as the fire service arrived for a quick clean-up operation at the filling station in Barry, South Wales.

However, a week later Mr Wyde received a letter from Morrison's demanding £670 - and a warning they would send bailiffs round if he didn't pay-up.

The letter explained they sent two service engineers from Wigan, Lancashire, to make sure the petrol station was safe.

The bill stated he spent six hours travelling the 440-mile round trip to Barry for the job - which took just 40 minutes using a jet wash.

Mr Wyde, a retired pipefitter, said: "It would be laughable if it wasn't such a big bill.

"It was a small amount of petrol - about two quids worth.

"The fire service had cleaned it up in minutes and they didn't charge for that.

"I was amazed to get such a huge bill - it was a complete surprise.

"I was being asked to pay for someone to drive all the way from the North of England to deal with a small amount of petrol which had already been cleaned up."

He said: "I told Morrison's I was not paying but they threatened me with recovery agents.

"I thought they were behaving like bullies - I'm sorry I accidentally spilled petrol but I paid for it and the fire service cleaned it up."

Mr Wyde put the matter in the hands of his solicitors and Morrison's backed down.

A spokesman said: "It was a specialist service and had to be carried out by an approved company.

"However it was an error to charge the customer for the full amount.

"We would like to apologise to Mr Wyde and as a result will cancel all charges to him."

A weeks free shopping would be a better way of apologising-corporate Numpty.

That’s it for now; I will be spending the rest of the day either restoring that which was lost or preparing the new site.


Angus

AnglishLit

Angus Dei-NHS-THE OTHER SIDE

Angus Dei politico

NHS Horror Stories

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The rumours of my demise are untrue

I have just returned to the Angus castle after a week away in Welsh Wales visiting my sister and family.

I switched on the laptop and...some B'stard has hacked my blogger account and deleted AD from the blogosphere, but you can't keep a good Angus down, I have restored the blogs, and my email temporarily, as I don't know if it will happen again.

This is just to let all my blogger friends and readers know that I am still here, and despite this setback will remain.

I have a backup plan which may well be brought into effect, but it will mean changing sites and will be a pain in the bottom for all concerned.

Thank you for your kind emails and thoughts.


Angus

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Christmas-again!

Been down to Tesco already-6am pissistantly raining, place was heaving, trolleys stacked to the gills, what they are going to do with all that food in two days dumbfounds me.

Anyway no news today, and this is the last post for a few days, so I have a selection of “choice” videos for your amusement-or not.

First up:

You never know what you have until you lose it-dedicated to a certain “lady” not a Bloghound or a commenter I hasten to add.

The wrong present.

Do not watch this if you are offended by bad language-a mate of mine made this-dedicated to Ned Kelly

And finally:

I couldn’t make up my mind about which Christmas song to feature so here is a medley.

Many thanks to all visitors, commenter’s, and blog friends, have a first class Crimbo, and a spectacular New Year.

Angus

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Postal penalty; Marmite sentence; Angels can’t fly; Show us your helmet; and the Santa substitute robber.

Still freezing, but it didn’t snow during the dark thing, they are threatening that a large bright UFO will appear in the sky, it has been seen before those that have seen it call it the Sun.

We live in hope.








As do the “Postal service” apparently who have decided to raise the price of first and second class stamps to 41p and 32p respectively, in order to “save the universal postal service.”

The price of mail sent by small businesses will not change, remaining at 36p and 25p for standard letters. Royal Mail insisted that the cost of posting a standard letter in Britain was still among the lowest in Europe.

Putting up prices, a great way to attract more custom.

Marmite Nicker sentenced

I blogged about this a while ago, and it seems that justice has been done.

A serial Marmite thief, Nicholas Welch, who forced a petrol station to stop stocking the spread after he continually stole every jar, has been convicted of shoplifting.

The 30 year-old was spotted several times on CCTV walking into the garage and swiping dozens of pots of the condiment.
In total he stole 18 jars of the £2.79 yeast extract spread on four separate occasions worth over £50 from the 24-hour W. Grose Shell Garage in Kingsthorpe, Northants.

Welch was finally caught when CCTV images were circulated among members of Northampton Retail Crime Initiative (NRCI) who recognised his face on their database of prolific offenders.

At Northampton Magistrates' Court Welch was handed a 12-month supervision order.

He will remain on the NRCI's list of known shoplifters for the next year is banned from more than 150 shops around the town including W Grose.

Justice......well sort of.

The end of innocence

Angels depicted heralding the birth of Jesus in nativity scenes across the world are anatomically flawed, according to a scientist who claims they would never be able to fly.

He has even had a go at Christmas tree fairies-“and found the angels and fairies that sit atop of Christmas trees did not get there under their own steam.”

“Even a cursory examination of the evidence in representational arts shows that angels and cherubs cannot take off and cannot use powered flight,” said Prof Wotton. “And even if they used gliding flight, they would need to be exposed to very high wind velocities at take off - such high winds that they would be blown away and have no need for wings.

That’s the trouble with scientists-no faith.

Nude cyclists-no helmets

From down under and East a bit: Police picked up two naked men on a late night bike ride in a New Zealand town but let them off with a warning: put on helmets.

“They were wanting to experience total freedom,” said Senior Constable Cathy Duder, who stopped the pair about 10 p.m. on a recent night in the beach resort town of Whangamata. She told them: “You may experience total confinement. You should head home and get helmets.”

The duo turned tail and headed directly back to their house, Duder told The Associated Press on Wednesday. She said she did not see them again during her shift, and it was not known if they donned helmets and resumed their ride.

Public nudity can attract a charge of offensive behaviour in New Zealand, but Duder said she cut the two men a break.

“It was dark and there was no one else around. They were jovial young men who had not intended to cause offense,” she said.

She described the two as “happy young men in their mid-20s ... they appeared to be as sober as two judges.”


No helmets! Painful.



And finally:

Naughty Santa

From West a lot: a man wearing a Santa Claus suit — including hat, beard and moustache — and dark sunglasses robbed a SunTrust Bank on Tuesday morning, demanding money from the teller at gunpoint.

After the teller complied, the man fled in a gray midsize car

See! It couldn’t have been Santa no sleigh!


Angus

AnglishLit

Angus Dei-NHS-THE OTHER SIDE

Angus Dei politico

NHS Horror Stories

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GPs under siege; Choo-choo runs again; Grumpy cop; Numpty suicide sausage; Bum sniffer; and Dangerous Crimbo.

Abso-bloody-lutely freezing again this dark morn, it snowed AGAIN last night, and then froze over, so what we have at the Angus castle is Snow; ice. Snow, ice, Snow, ice.

The boiler stoker is working nonstop to keep the central heating going and I give up scraping the car, it can stay there till after that thing on Friday.

I tweaked my ankle yesterday slipping on the ice and thought I might see a GP but now I know why it takes so long to get an appointment-Migrants are registering with family doctors at a rate of one a minute, leaving GP surgeries "straining at the seams" as they try to cope with the impact of rising immigration, new figures show.

More than 600,000 people signed up with a GP practice in England and Wales last year having arrived from overseas – an increase of 50 per cent in just seven years.

The number of GPs only increased by a fraction of that over the same period fuelling concerns that Labour's immigration policy has placed a huge strain on resources.

Thanks Gord.

That chuffin useless Eurostar is due to resume operation of its high-speed trains through the Channel Tunnel on Tuesday after three days with no service.

But passengers with pre-booked tickets are being advised not to travel unless it is essential, as the operators try to clear a backlog of journeys.

I was watching the news and it seems that if you have a ticket for last Friday, Saturday or Sunday you can travel today, if you have a ticket for Monday or today it’s tomorrow, I think.

The firm said snow shields used to protect the trains' electrics had worked for the past 15 years, but the recent cold snap in France had been "unprecedented" in their experience.

So it seems that the cold weather in the UK doesn’t cause any problems, but the cold weather in France has had undesired effects, if that is true why is it that the trains were breaking down in the tunnels?

Detective Grinch

Over in Washington: police are investigating after Internet videos showed a detective waving his gun during a mass snowball fight on a city street.

Police said Monday they were looking into reports that the plainclothes officer pulled a gun after he and his personal car were hit by snowballs. Police say witness accounts and videos from the scene appeared to support the claims.

Hundreds of people were gathered for the snowball fight during Saturday’s record snowstorm.

A video posted on YouTube showed the officer waving and pointing a gun as he walks toward the snowballers. Another video shows what appears to be the same man telling people he is a detective and that he pulled his gun because he was hit by snowballs.

The link for the video is Here


Miserable bugger.

Want to see my sausage?

And from the other direction: A Chinese robber threatened to blow up a restaurant with sausages, disguised as explosives, strapped to his body.

The 23-year-old man ate a meal at the restaurant, in Benxi, Heilongjang province, before grabbing the owner's daughter.

He put a knife to her neck and demanded cash from the till - but the restaurateur and other diners overpowered him.

They called the police - but when officers arrived the man, named He, jumped to his feet and revealed his 'explosive' belt.

Police managed to restrain He and took him outside to an open space - and called bomb disposal experts, reports the Huashang Morning Post.

"When they experts arrived, they laughed out loud as they quickly realised the explosives were actually sausages," said a police spokesman.

He said he staged the robbery because he was depressed after splitting up with his girlfriend. He told police he had been "inspired" by the shape of the sausages.

If he likes sausages that much he is going to be very happy in prison.

Co-op Bum Sniffer

Click on the link over the pic to view the video.

Police are hunting a man who carried out what they describe as 'bizarre' sexual assaults after he repeatedly knelt behind a shelf stacker to smell his behind.

The man was caught on CCTV creeping up on the unsuspecting worker at least 20 times as he stacked shelves at a Co-op store in Plymouth, Devon. The footage shows him casually pretending to chose items from shelves before suddenly crouching down behind the employee.

The man's odd behaviour to the employee was spotted on at least two occasions. The offences only came to light when the employee became suspicious and informed his manager who checked the in-store security video.

The victim - who cannot be named for legal reasons - said: "I had no idea what was going on. I thought it was all a bit strange. I was shocked and I couldn't believe he was in the aisle for that long."

Police say they are treating it as sexual assault.

DC Steve White of Plymouth police, said: "We are treating this incident very seriously and we would appeal to the public's help in tracking down this man.

"It is a bizarre incident and the shop was full of people. Someone must have seen the man and could well help us identify him."

The man is white, clean shaven and of medium to large build.

During the first incident he was wearing a brown T-shirt with jeans and black shoes and glasses and in the second a blue shirt with jeans.

What can you say?

And finally:

Crimbo-be afraid, be very afraid.

A casualty doctor has warned that carving the Christmas turkey while drunk or popping champagne corks could seriously damage the population's health on Christmas Day.

More bizarre accidents medics have seen include: exploding Christmas tree lights, which caused small burns to eyelids and eyeballs, and zips caught on eyelids as people struggled to try on a new jumper.

Also on the list are burns from the oven, older people choking on their turkey and nasty hand and limb injuries caused by people trying to get stones out of avocados - something that is becoming an increasing issue.

Others can turn up at accident & emergency with eye injuries from poking themselves with Christmas tree branches while getting presents from under it.

Eye unit staff commonly see children suffering after poking themselves or others in the eye with new toys and glitter fragments in the eye from cards or craft activities.

Dry eyes from sleeping with eyes open after excess alcohol consumption is common.


Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Angus

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Angus Dei-NHS-THE OTHER SIDE

Angus Dei politico

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Recession over; Choo-choo catastrophe; Cha Yu-ram; Illiterate binmen; and a Numpty in a goat skin

Monday again, just been down to Tesco, it seems that they opened at 6am instead of the usual 8am this morn, shame they didn’t tell anyone, but it was nice to have 20 checkouts open instead of the usual one, must be Christmas or something.

Anyone else fed up with the snow and having to scrape the car every morning?

Still there is good news of a sort:

The recession will be over by the end of the year, bringing a close to the worst period for the British economy since at least the 1930s, according to the CBI.

The business lobby group predicted economic output will have grown by 0.5 per cent between October and December, meaning that Britain will have finally exited its recession, the last major economy to do so.

The news will come as a welcome relief to Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, who has been under pressure since the Pre-Budget Report, which was widely criticised for failing to address how the deficit would be tackled.

Let’s all go out and celebrate.

Still the wrong type of water

Eurostar trains modified overnight will be tested today as Channel Tunnel services are suspended for a third day.

Eurostar has warned it will be not able to carry all of the passengers due to travel over the next few days as well as the backlog of those whose journeys have already been cancelled.

It is advising people to postpone their trip unless absolutely necessary.

Eurostar commercial director Nick Mercer said the company believed it had now identified the cause of the problems.

"We will be testing the trains with the new modifications in the deteriorating snow conditions," he said.

Snookered, but in the nicest possible way

South Korea's pin-up pool player Cha Yu-ram has insisted she has no plans to switch to a career in modelling despite publishing a book of racy photos this year.

The cue-wielding beauty has won international titles this year, proving there is substance behind the style, and has vowed to deliver at next year's Asian Games in Guangzhou.

"I had a photo shoot for a sexy photo album this summer but promise my fans I won't go into the entertainment business," Cha told South Korea's Chosun Ilbo.

"I want to be recognised for my pool skills, not for my looks. I think my (time) is about to begin. Look out for me (in Guangzhou)."

And yes I know it’s not about snooker, but it seemed to fit.

Where’s you bin

One thousand homes in Oxon were left without bins for a month-and-a-half because drivers were unable to read addresses and street maps.

The slip-up emerged after an official report was released from waste contractors Verdant, who were contracted by South Oxfordshire district council in June.

''A consequence was that bins were not delivered to approximately 1,000 properties at the start of the contract.''

Resident Val Wolsey, 74, from Wallingford, Oxon, said: ''I'm staggered. Where was the management?

''These people clearly were not given sufficient guidance and support to be able to carry the job out properly.''

Another resident, Tim Day, said: ''It's totally ridiculous. I just cannot understand how people cannot read a map.

''On our road, there are only two or three of us that never got them, so it was a case of missing out houses.''

Verdant spokesman Blair Drummond said crews delivering the bins were not the company's usual binmen, but short-term contractors from a local employment agency, unfamiliar with the district's geography.

Not many tips this year then.





And finally:

Dressed to die

A Greek man dressed in animal hide was mistakenly shot dead while out hunting wild boar for a Christmas dinner.

Police said members of a shooting party made up of families opened fire when Christos Constantinou, 49, moved through the undergrowth.

They are thought to have been confused by the fact the victim was disguised in dark goat skins, which are used to camouflage and to mislead their prey.

The groups had fanned out in pairs of two to track down an animal for the traditional festive dinner when the accident happened.

Police in the northern Greek town of Nemea, Chalkidiki, said Mr Constantinou was pronounced dead upon arrival at hospital.

Two unidentified men, aged 25 and 28, were detained and were being questioned.

The lack of common sense of the human race never ceases to confuse me.


Angus

AnglishLit

Angus Dei-NHS-THE OTHER SIDE

Angus Dei politico

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