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A friend gave me a pot of freshly home made marmalade last week.

Its not something I am usually a lover of but this was delisious and didnt last the week.

So of course I had to make some.

Best time to make marmalade is when the Seville Oranges are out in Jan/Feb.

It takes a long time to make marmalade as the oranges have to be simmered for a few hours first to make them soft.

Which then makes them easier to cut into shred.

All the pectin is in the orange pips so these have to wrapped in a muslin bag and boiled with the Juice before adding the sugar.

Just when I was about to panic mine reached setting point.

I cannot really tell if its a good marmalade, in fact I think I would have liked the shred a little more softer.

So now I wait for the verdict, from people who will be lucky enough to get a jar

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1. Prodicus is not losing sleep over this ‘hung parliament’ crap.

2. Next Left takes a pop at the Tories’ supposedly dodgy crime stats.

3. Adam Collyer thinks UKIP’s latest policy proposals are good for a laugh.

4. Counting Cats tries to explain climate skepticism to Rajendra Pachauri, head of the IPCC.

5. Cato discovers that suicide bombers in the UK have just declared war strike action.

Mother, can I run for President?

-- Mother, The Wall, Pink Floyd, 30-11-1979

To you who raised me
I offer this thought
It is something I learned
Without being taught
In all the world
There is no other
To take the place
Of my dear Mother!
Happy Birthday Mum! You are the light of our lives, now and forever!

Footnotes:

Lines composed by Regina Graham

This sunken parterre is part of the formal gardens at Hanbury Hall. Archaeological investigation during the winter months of 1992-1993 uncovered remains of the formal garden. The main outline of the garden has now been re-instated, with the Sunken Parterre being the first part to be restored. The garden is being planted with historical accuracy using early eighteenth century publications.

The garden was originally surrounded by tall brick walls but due to the cost of reconstructing them they have been substituted a yew hedge. It was also thought that new brick would out of place next to the softly faded brickwork of the house.

Gordon Brown was caught on the hop in today's PMQ's when he was asked to explain why he had not declared his secret £50,000 personal slush fund. Unbelievably he said: ‘I know nothing about what he [the questioner] is talking about.’ He might as well have said "I take the Fifth!". I don't know about you, but it reminded me of Manuel from Fawlty Towers.

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To get back on the Bus just click the Back Button and click STOP 2 to continue the Tour. I think you can work the rest out.
The Bus rolls out each day - enjoy the ride. If you have any suggestions for the next tour drop me an email by hitting the Contact button at the top of the page.

- Idiot 1

- Idiot 2

This one would get me into real trouble with the mums of Britain if they read this website, which I think perhaps they don’t.

The issue is Mums in PJs dropping their kids off at school and this was discussed in the TES.  I presume what they were going on about is that a mother could at least dress to go out in the street.

Now, my own view is that I’m not averse to mums in PJs as a general principle – it’s rather easy on the eyes, as a matter of fact.

My issue instead is with two things:

1. A UK culture in which such a thing is seen as quite OK and I admit I’m comparing this with Russia, where I was stationed from 1996 to 2008, where not only would no woman be seen dead outside, for whatever reason, unless she looked $1 million but she would not even leave that bathroom without every hair in place and if it wasn’t in place, she’d go into hysterics and refuse to budge.

The result was stunning looking women wherever you went and early morning dropoffs of kids at school were seen as a fashion parade, a competition of sorts.  Zero to do with impressing men – there were all women in the lobby, except for grandfathers and teachers, of whom I was the only male.

The notion of turning up to school wearing pyjamas just did not compute in the brain.

2. The self-justifications given in the comments section are not only intriguingly illogical, they’re sad:

If it’s a choice of mum in PJs or a late/absent child, I know which one I’d prefer. Depending on which child of course!  [Shalala]

Shalala, fortunately for most women, it is not that choice at all.  It is actually a choice between self-respect, together with a child on time or no self-respect, together with a child on time.

I personally don’t see what the issue is either way. Ok so it’s not very dignified and I do feel sorry for the kids of these slovenly mums, but in the grand scheme of things, surely it’s not such a big deal. [Neitherherenorthere]

What we have here on one side, clearly,  is the “anything goes, let it all hang out culture” and adherents of that would find my post quite offensive.

On the other side, we have the continental women and those in the UK who do care what they look like, for example:

School starts here at 8 a.m. latest. Kids at school 7.45.  We leave home at just after 7.  Whether I was working or not, I have never, ever, not been dressed. I have never, ever overslept.  Why on earth I should not have time to get out of my nightwear is beyond me. [Celtic Queen]

Oh my goodness, is Celtic Queen suggesting that standards, like charity, begin at home?  Heaven forbid.  And what do men feel?

I think they [the PJ mums] are  indecent slobs with no self respect or respect for others . They are offensive  and embarrassing to others.  [Supporterx]

Here is a quick tip to get better sleep.

In this always on, switched on world, sleeping well is essential.

It’s also easier then ever to catch up with email, facebook, twitter with mobile devices and wireless.

To make sure you sleep better, do NOT access your email, facebook, twitter etc at night if you don’t have time to reply.

WHY?

Because you will be subconsciously, (or even consciously) formulating your reply and it will be rattling round in your head when you should be sleeping…

“A person can be hurting and medical assistance does not work. We help people to locate themselves.”

- Pat Harney, a spokesperson for the Scientology operation in Haiti, referring to their healing method known as “assist”, which can involve touching parts of the body or asking a patient to stare at a wall. “It’s a special Scientology technique developed by Mr Hubbard,” added Ms Harney.  With an operation called The Volunteer Ministry Disaster Relief for Haiti, the Scientologists now plan to establish a permanent base in the country following the devastating earthquake. (full story HERE)

Staying safe online

For many people, the internet is new and exciting. But it can be a very dangerous place.

For increasingly busy people who maybe just pop online quickly to check email it can be very dangerous.

People will tend to get “accustomed” to the type of email they receive – facebook status updates, newsletter updates and ticket confirmations etc.

Thieves are openly trying to capture personal information and they do it like this.

Firstly, they will collect hundreds if not hundreds of thousands of email addresses from forums, blogs and the like. There is even software to “harvest” these addresses.

The object of the thief is to lure the recipient into revealing sensitive information. This may include passwords and credit card information.

No one is going to knowingly reveal that information so the scammers have to be more cunning.

An email is sent which deliberately tries to jolt the recipient into action by making them temporarily losing control of their senses and taking action they wouldn’t normally take.

Some examples could include

You are due a tax refund
You have received funds (from paypal or moneybookers)
Your paypal account has been hijacked

For each example – the user is asked to sign in and confirm their details

Or “questions” from ebay users including

“Is your Sony laptop still for sale?”
“Why have you not sent my goods? I will report you to the police”

Of course they hope the recipient will immediately panic and leave their normal senses aside for a few moments.

Now the scammers are quite clever and they may have either “spoofed” the “from” email to make it look it has come from where it says or formatted the email in the corporate layout of the organisation concerned. (PayPal is blue and black; eBay is yellow, green, red & blue etc etc)

Of course the website where the user is diverted to is a copy of the real one and the scammers may have even registered a similar domain such as

nameofbank-complaints.com

How to spot a fake email and what to do

There are some tell tales signs that the email is not original and these include.

You may not be named in the “to” field of the email. It may just be addressed to customer@bankname.com.

This is an indicator that the email has been sent to hundreds if not thousands of recipients.

The text of the email may be in poor english and may contain spelling mistakes. The scam may have originated in non english speaking countries. The marketing departments of large corporations would not have made such mistakes…

The link where the user will be taken is shown at the bottom of the screen BEFORE the user clicks and it is unlikely to be anything to do with the institution.

If you use an anti virus like Kasperksy, it may pick up that the email content contains a virus or a link within it goes to a known fraudulent website.

What to do

The best thing to do with these emails is to just delete them. Replying or clicking any “unsubscribe” link will just confirm that the email address is “live.”

You can forward them to the relevant complaints department at paypal/ebay etc but it is most likely that someone else will have already done it…

In the next few weeks, we will be looking to relaunch our “safe use of the web & email course” – But in the mean time – stay safe online.

Related Blogs

• Related Blogs on How to stay safe online

…. would have been nice but it was too much to expect.  Two days ago I posted about Macfarlanes, solicitors for Trafigura, and a couple of snippets about their own website.

I said this:

“After their visit [to my blog] I had a wee nose about their site.  Of interest is this little snippet.  The page containing examples of their recent work shows that they advised on the takeover of Ottakars by HMV.

As far as I can see this takeover took place in mid-2006.

Recent?

Also there is a little spelling error there too. They say that the potential takeover created more “compliants” than any other case.  Just a little error on a website but it’s the impression that creates!”

Today I find that the page previously titled “Our Recent Work” has been changed to “Our Work” and that the spelling mistake “compliants” has been corrected to “complaints”.  I was going to show screen-grabs but I don’t want to risk infringing their rights.

It is heart-warming to know that a big important company is paying such attention to the ramblings of this little blog.

A “thank you” would have been nice but not really necessary.  Instead of this, I am prepared to accept a deal which would have me vet their website (and those of other companies) for errors!

Must be a nice little earner.  I might get  …. even £5 per site!

I’ll be RICH!

We were looking at worship last night in Zac's and what it means to people. Preparing for it earlier in the day I remembered a piece of writing I'd done, probably about 10 years ago.At the time the children were still in school and I was struggling with anxiety and depression. Just the thought of going to Sainsburys was enough to panic me. We had a writers' group in church and our set task one evening was to write about worship. I'd recently read in the Message version of the bible the first verse of Romans chapter 12, and using that as my reference point I wrote this:WednesdayGot up. Made porridge and sandwiches. Dressed. Took children to school. Went to Sainsburys. Came home. Resisted temptation to leave shopping on kitchen floor and unpacked bag after bag after bag of shopping. Listened to the Archers. Walked the dog. Fetched children from school. Cooked dinner. Took son to football training. Fetched son from football training. Watched TV. Went to bed. Fell in gratefully, relieved to have got through another day. Thank God.

(Continued on my bits that are too long)

Continued from Part II. Today, the second day of preliminary hearings, Geert Wilders launched two dedicated trial websites (in English - Dutch). This Court, specifically instated to hear cases of discrimination, today decided it does have a legal base to handle the case. Wilders's defence counsel, Abraham Moszkowicz had argued the Court has no standing to hear suits involving Members of Parliament. You wish!, said the pomo Court. It's clear the Court wants to prevent this case from...

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As Geoff had been away for most of January, I had no one to cook for, so on his return I was delighted to do some cooking.

Friday I made the lovely warming Butternut Squash and Ginger soup.

Saturday it was a slimming world cod gratin, which was delicious.

Sunday I tried a new recipe that had caught my eye in the Daily Mail.

Moroccan Mushrooms served with couscous.

It was a very tasty, Low fat, vegetarian dish, easy and economical to make.

So it ticked all my boxes and was enjoyed by all

The recipe can be found here.

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You’ve possibly seen this already, as I’m a bit late to the party [bad pun]. A Liverpool paper has reported:

A TORY candidate yesterday sought to disassociate himself from the views of an anti-EU campaign. Matt Wright, who will stand in the Vale of Clwyd in the general election, said the Albion Alliance had been ‘disingenuous’ over his pledge of support.

The accusation was first carried in the North Wales Daily Post as a result of one of their journalists contacting us for comment. Ian Parker-Joseph took the journalist through what had actually been sent to Matt Wright, his response and further action and in that letter, it quite clearly states what he was pledging to.  Witterings from Witney is our main man dealing with candidate correspondence and he has some interesting tales to tell about what’s been happening.

Our front page also carries the pledge itself so we’re having trouble seeing where our disingenuity comes in:

I pledge to work tirelessly to give the voters of my constituency a democratic and direct voice in the United Kingdom’s continued relationship with the EU.

I pledge that I will sponsor a Private Members Bill, written in clear concise terms, calling for a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union – and/or support any motion for such a referendum – and to vote positively for any Bill that may call for such a referendum, irrespective of Party Whip, with a view to the successful outcome of this pledge within 1 year of a new Parliament or sooner.

Vale of Clwyd Labour AM Ann Jones, attempting to cash in on Matt Wright’s earlier commitment to support the people in his constituency and in a broader sense, the people of the UK, said:

“The fact that a Mr Wright has joined a rag-tag alliance with UKIP and Co shows just how out of touch he is with local people. I am astonished that he would wilfully support a Bill that would do such damage to our economy.”

Ann Jones says that any group or person who wishes to reverse the spiralling EU debt, unaccountability, rampant corruption and damage to the UK through the plethora of EU laws constraining UK citizens in every walk of life whilst paying through the nose for that privilege – any such group or person would do “damage to the economy” and is no more than a rag tag.

The interesting thing is that everyone from the initial journalist through to the Labour anti-democratic member has missed the point that the Albion Alliance is not an “anti-EU” campaign. It is a “pro-referendum” campaign – different other animal.

Ian Parker-Joseph, meanwhile, points out why we have had to introduce a Secret Pledge mechanism:

The Albion Alliance, in their campaign to have candidates at the forthcoming election sign a pledge to propose and support such a bill, have uncovered instances where some candidates, especially those standing for the Conservative Party, have intimated that they have come under pressure not to sign as they would then face deselection.

For this reason Albion Alliance have introduced a ’secret pledge’ whereby candidates may make their pledge, but that pledge will be withheld from public view until such time as nominations close, after which they could not be deselected.

For some time David Cameron has exerted an ‘iron-control’ over his party, candidate selection and policies. (see this article and the quote “A very small number of people take a different view on the science, but the policy is driven by me, and that is the way it is going to be” as an example of his attitude)

There’s dirty politics going on, folks and the party leaderships’ aim is to under no circumstances accede to the will of the people to let them have a say in their affairs but to retain control of the reins of power by all means possible. 

Guido posts on this here.  Meanwhile, Witterings from Witney reports on Gordo’s latest move to change the voting system.

Remember – your MP and other candidates know far better than you what is good for you so they suggest you desist in these attempts to have your voice heard, relax and just allow their whitewashes to satisfy you – there’s a good boy or girl.

BBC News, 2nd February 2010: Britain’s “first past the post” voting system could be scrapped if Labour wins the general election, under plans which have been outlined by Gordon Brown. The prime minister wants a referendum on changing to an “alternative vote” system, where candidates are ranked in order of voters’ preference. MPs will vote next week on holding a referendum after the general election.

Daily Telegraph, 20th January 2010: Gordon Brown has given his strongest backing to election reform which would ensure that MPs received the backing of at least half of local voters.  …During Prime Minister’s Question Time, Mr Brown dropped a strong hint that if a referendum was held, he would campaign in favour of the alternative vote system, where electors are able to rank candidates in order of preference.

Channel 4 News, 1st October 2009:  On the final day of Labour’s 2009 party conference, the prime minister tells Jon Snow that he and the Labour party are committed to an alternative vote system of electoral reform. Towards the end of his interview, Gordon Brown agrees with Jon Snow that he will be “passionately urging people to vote for electoral reform”.

BBC News, 29th September 2009: Gordon Brown has committed Labour to holding a referendum on voting reform should it win the next election. In his conference speech, Mr Brown said Labour would hold a referendum “early” in the next Parliament on proposals for an alternative vote system.

Daily Telegraph, 11th June 2009: A sweeping package of electoral reforms, which could include the end to the first-past-the post voting system in general elections, was promised by Gordon Brown in his Commons statement.  …He was willing to abandon the first-past-the-post for an alternative system only if there is “broad consensus in the country” thought to mean a referendum.

*yawn*

I think we’ve got the message, Gordon.

H/T IPJ

Meanwhile, Gordo is planning to change the mechanism of Westminster politics:

Gordon Brown has been addressing the IPPR and has stated he wishes to draw up a new constitution, to be ready for the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta in 2015. He also believes that only the three party system should be allowed to prosper – witness his statement :

…….to those who are tempted by the fringes and the extremes, it is clear that the way we do politics in the future needs to be different from the past.

… and Andrew Allison has this:

Ben Farrugia highlights in this article how once again reform of the House of Commons is going to be blocked by the government. Changes that could and would have made a difference to democracy in this country will not happen in the lifetime of this parliament because of a procedural trick played by Harriet Harman.

Yesterday was an empty day.  Just a nothing day. 

Nothing!

Of course, today will be different, won’t it?