Both my second teams have made it to the play-offs. Oldham have finally managed to get there and Lincoln will be trying for the fifth time.
Hopefully one of the teams will make it to the finals, and I’m sure that if they do, I’ll try to get a ticket for Wembley.
I would like to thank those who elected me last year, and voted for me this year. However with the boundary changes and all-ups unfortunately both Heather and myself are no longer the councillors for Park Ward. The Liberal Democrats did avoid a complete wipe out with Helen Heath taking one of the Labour seats in Carholme Ward.
The Tories did what they promised all year and took control of the council from Labour with 17 councillors (up 6). There was bad luck for Claire Metcalfe (Con) who got elected with me last year, she came 4th in Glebe, losing out to her 18 year old daughter Charlotte (Con) who came 1st and I wish Sandra Gratrick (Con) the best of luck next year having to stand for the third year in a row even though she’s been elected twice.
This years other losers were: Steve Allnutt (Lab); Lesley Rose (Lab); Larry Wells (Lab); Morris Cookson (Lab) and Geoff Ellis (Lab)
Is it that hard to understand? Again I’ve purchased another coffee from Starbucks only to find out that the vanilla was missing. Normally it’s the new Newark branch who forget something, but today I was at the Lincoln High Street one.
However I only paid £2.25 today, so it looks like I got free cream.
One of the big arguments against fortnightly collection is vermin. Now in Lincoln fortnightly collection came in with the wheelie bins.
Which of the two pictures below do you believe would result in more rats?
It seems that Flames of Lincoln have decided to go to the press over the decision by the Development Control Committee to part reject their retrospective planning application for external signs.
Now whilst I don’t have a problem with the actual signs, I do believe that they have too many, especially the vee-board over the window. Also the key point behind the rejection of the signs was that we have a City wide policy on signage. The owners should wander down the High Street to see how this policy has been applied.
Now if Flames of Lincoln had come to the council before putting up the signs we wouldn’t have had a problem. However instead they were put up without any permission and now wonder why they are being asked to take them down.
Today the BBC report about a credit card skimming scam that has been found in Hull.
Now whilst I haven’t blogged about this before I’ve been saying it’s possible since the new machines arrived.
The scam is quite easy.
Step One, get a card reader like the ones at Tescos which is attached to the till screen. These readers are two-in-one it reads both the magnetic strip and the chip.
Step Two, add the classic skimming device to the top of your slider.
Step Three, place a camera or get someone to look at the PIN being entered.
Step Four, clone the card onto a Tesco Clubcard
Step Five, wander into the High Street to an old cash-point (one that won’t read any chips) and enter the PIN you’ve stolen.
Step Six, take the cash and run.
To be truthful this may not work, it’s not exactly like I’ve tried to test it. However there are steps you can take to ensure it never happens to you.
Never let your card out of your hand. With the new chip-and-pin machines only you should need to handle the card. Don’t give it to the till staff at the supermarket, nor give it to the waitress at the restaurant. Make sure you place it in the machine and that you take it out. Chip-and-pin machines are shallow and can’t read the magnetic strip data.
Never let anyone see your PIN. Place your hand over the top and move your body to ensure no-one behind you can see.
Finally if you do spot anything odd on your bank statement phone your bank straight away.
Well the report has been handed in to the CPS.
We’ll just have to wait and see.
My morning routine generally involves a quick look at my phone to flick through the overnight emails and a read through the BBC News stories.
This allows me to work out if there might be anything exciting on the morning news.
At 7am today, it looked like the headlines would most likely be about the Bourbon Dolphin, so I stayed in bed for a bit.
Getting down for about 7.45 I put on BBC Breakfast and watched Newswatch. It was then followed by the headlines. The top story, Young Unmarried Couple Split Up, looking at my phone, I was sent the story via Breaking News by 7.15.
If that wasn’t bad enough I went to the gym which had the same story on loop.
Finally getting home I put on Radio 4 and listened again to the Now Show. Then proper news came on, none of this magazine style BBC One type news. But guess what was the top story, 47 dead in Iraq? Nope, that couple again.
Please BBC, if I see this as the lead story by 22.10 tonight I want my license fee back!
Today’s papers and Direct Line would want you to believe that the cost of parking your car has soared. Citing Berkhamstead as an example, where on average parking for two hours will now cost you a whole £1.08 (was 10p). If anybody really believes that £1.08 is an extortionate price for car parking they haven’t been to London.
Worse is the panic that the overall average has gone up from 86p to £1.21 in six years. A price rise of about 6p per year. 6p!!!!!!!
It reminds me of the people moaning about the recent rise for the Dunham Bridge toll. This year saw a 20% increase, which to cars was 5p. Now unless those opposing price increases want a yearly inflationary increase of 1 and 2p and are willing to have a stack of coppers, a 5p rise after four years ain’t bad.