Tuesday 1 November 2016

Mad drivers. Especially the HGV drivers !!

https://youtu.be/epOvkwTVNBw

Saturday 9 July 2016

Thursday 7 July 2016

1/18 scale Scarlett and half Rocco trailer model (98261358022322056074)

In May this year I celebrated my 50th birthday.

After a crushing result in court in February relating to the loss of my amazing Scirocco "Scarlett" in an accident in 2014 I was feeling pretty low having lost the vehicle, the compensation and now suffering from chronic Tinnitus, things were not so rosy for celebrating my 5 decades of life.......but the amazing hard work, skill and dedication of one amazing chap named Glen Place provided me with an epic ,mind-blowing gift that can only really be appreciated by seeing it in the flesh ( or cast perhaps?).

No words now, just pictures to document the amazing thing that Glen has done for me in completing this incredible project

Scarlett and trailer in 1/18 scale....

Tuesday 5 July 2016

No win, No Fee.....A cautionary tale..

As many of my regular readers will already know,In April 2014 my amazing 1987 Mk2 Scirocco "Scarlett"was rear ended by a 44 ton HGV whilst I was making a right hand turn into a layby.
Most people I spoke too about this accident told me that it was obviously the lorry drivers fault and that any future court case would follow that line of reasoning....but the law, as I have found out to my cost, is not so clear cut, or a fair as the layman would like believe.

I had, up until my court date in 2016, had no experience of what to expect, and so, in the interest of assisting and informing anyone else considering following the same course, have decided to share my own experience and make them aware of many aspects of choosing a "No win, No fee" route that they are probably not aware of.

Over the next few posts I will tell the story of my experience of such an occurrence...and the astonishing and expensive result of my seeking justice .

A tale of misplaced faith, miss understood choices and miss guided trust in a legal process which , when it goes terribly wrong, does not give the client a voice, allows people to lie and get away with it.....and lands the "victim" with huge costs which they may, like i was, be unaware they could face.


Due to legal minefields I will change the names of the parties involved, but will tell you a tale which may make you wonder if the safety net we call the process of taking a claim to court is actually as just and fair a decision as we may all like to believe it is......

Friday 10 June 2016

Can anybody help with this appeal?

http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/thames-ditton-leukaemia-sufferer-needs-11432257

Interesting results from this study...

Study says a major blood cancer is 11 distinct diseases - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-36479291

BBC coming around today for a chat :-)

Today I have a chap coming around to the house to do an interview with me for a well known consumer program.

Not going to tell you what it's about right now, but will post some more details up here once he has been to let you know how it goes :-)

Not had any reporters around since Rob Sissons came along to cover the Scirocco2Morocco drive in 2008 for East Midlands today and I had to drive the Scirocco along a back lane a few times with him filming in the rear to get footage for the story (it's on YouTube under the title "Scirocco 2 Morocco BBC visit" or something like that :-)

Sunday 10 April 2016

BloodWise. The new name of Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research....and much easier to type ,share my story :-)





Just had a look at the new(ish) Bloodwise website and spotted a familiar contributor who has had his Leukaemia story published on there :-)

If you fancy a read just follow the link below......

https://bloodwise.org.uk/blog/my-battle-chronic-lymphocytic-leukaemia

Keep on fighting Folks :-)





Police issue e-fit of suspect after teenager with leukaemia robbed

This is awful :-(

Police investigating the robbery of a teenage boy with leukaemia in Leeds have released an e-fit image of the suspect.
The 17-year-old victim was attacked and robbed at knifepoint at about 5pm on Monday, March 7, as he walked down a ginnel between Dixon Lane and Henry Avenue in Wortley. A gold-coloured iPhone 6 that had been given to him by a children's cancer charity was stolen.



The suspect, who was described as white, aged 19 to 20, slim, about 5ft 11ins tall, with a spotty complexion and a scruffy beard, rode off on a black mountain bike along Henry Avenue towards Kellet Road. He was wearing a black coat with a hood, black tracksuit bottoms and had a black drawstring bag on his back, which had a white Newcastle United logo on it.
Despite an excellent response from the public to our previous appeals for information, we have not yet been able to identify the suspect.
We have worked with the victim to produce an e-fit image and we believe it will be a good likeness of that person. We are asking people to put that image together with the physical description, the Newcastle United bag and the CCTV of him riding off on a bike and contact us if they think they know who it might be.
This was a really frightening experience for the victim who already has enough to cope with and we remain determined to do all we can to find the person responsible.
– DETECTIVE CONSTABLE GRANT LEE

Lets just hope that catch this scumbag and get the poor lads phone back for him !!

Hi Honey...I'm Home ........but not a very happy camper.





Well......I am back :-)

No doubt many of my regular readers will be wondering what on earth happened to this blog shortly after my court case regarding the RTA in April 2014. The truth is, after the catastrophic outcome of my claim , which was rejected due to a very good Barrister on the defences side, and ...well lets say, not such a good one on mine!!

I don't want to go into detail on here, but suffice to say the fact that the shock outcome has cost me dearly. Not only have i lost over £6500 in damages, had to endure almost 2 years of stress and financial hardship, but i lost the most wonderful car I think I will ever own....Scarlett the Scirocco :-(

The Ultimate indignity arrived recently. A bill from my "No win,No Fee" legal team...for almost £2800 !!

For what I ask?

Anyway. I won't be talking about this right now except to say that i am taking legal advice from the Legal Ombudsman and a firm of solicitors i have contacted who are very interested in carrying out a review of the entire case ....lets see what they make of the numerous points that I feel need clarification !

The bottom line?

I have a badly damaged Mk2 called Scarlett still sat on my drive and another road worthy Scirocco of the same year,colour and age awaiting transformation to become Scarlett's heir and successor .

I am bruised, battered and angry...but hey, In August I have been living with cancer for 10 years, so life NEEDS to go on and I need to get myself back on track.....I will let the legal experts do their job and hopefully get a few answers as to how this sorry state of affairs came to be .....



Scirocco 2 Morocco.......much more than just a Car !!

Sunday 21 February 2016

Tom Bell (BBC). Ebay feedback scam information....found on Ebay Forum !!

Not sure if Tom will read this but will post anyway :-)

This information was posted on the Official Ebay members forum...which makes it all the more ridiculous that ebay are STILL allowing people to trade "5 Star Feedback" (go on, search ebay for that)

Anyway here it is.

Incidentally it is followed by advice on how to avoid these scams!.....seems pretty simple to me that Ebay should ban them.....Simples :-)

How Feedback Scammers are Cheating the Feedback System
The following are just some of the ways today’s scammers are circumventing the eBay feedback system:
    Purchasing Positive Feedback:
    There are several ways for scammers to purchase undeserved positive feedback on eBay.
      The first is the simple yet blatantly direct purchase of positive feedback. This is when a seller posts an auction saying “I am selling positive feedback”, and the winning buyer gives the seller positive feedback in exchange for positive feedback of his or her own.
      The second is a little less overt, but is still a direct purchase of positive feedback. This happens when the seller lists the words “Positive Feedback” or “Feedback Exchange” in his or her item title under the guise of being a real transaction, and not a feedback exchange.
      Item titles may include things like “Free Stickers for Leaving POSITIVE FEEDBACK”, “new recipe gets POSITIVE FEEDBACK from all”, or “the most POSITIVE way to buy prewritten FEEDBACK”.
      Essentially the title of the item has the words “positive feedback” in it (often highlighted or capitalized), in order to let other scammers know, free feedback is being given away at this auction. The buyer then simply buys the item, and both buyer and seller get undeserved positive feedback.
      The third way scammers purchase positive feedback is perhaps the most covert way of doing so. In recent months, eBay has started cracking down on feedback exchanges and free feedback auctions. It has always been against eBay policies to exchange feedback, but for one reason or another they actually decided to start enforcing it, thus forcing many scammers have had to find new ways to obtain their underserved feedback. Well the latest craze for obtaining undeserved feedback is the purchase of online recipes, e-books, wholesale lists, free information, and information booklets. Simply put, any item that can and does sell on eBay for under $1, is fair game for scammers looking to purchase positive feedback. Whether the auction is setup solely for feedback exchanging, or even if the auction is legitimate, it is easy for a thief to buy 10 recipes or e-books (gets a yellow feedback star) for under $1. That’s right, how beneficial is the feedback system when a yellow star costs you less than a dollar?
    Feedback Fraud:
    This is the simplest way for thieves to obtain positive feedback. Basically they set up multiple accounts on eBay, setup the sale of multiple items, purchase the “items” from themselves, and then leave themselves positive feedback. Some scammers will even setup 100+ accounts just to make themselves look like a trustworthy seller.
    Feedback Theft:
    As the name implies, feedback theft is when someone takes feedback that doesn’t belong to them. Put simply, it is when a scammer hi-jacks, or takes over control of another seller’s eBay account. The scammer then uses the stolen eBay seller’s good reputation to trick buyers into paying him or her money.
    Hi-jacks commonly occur when sellers are tricked into entering their personal information (including passwords) into spoof/fake eBay or paypal sites.

Tuesday 16 February 2016

Exciting new weapon against ALL being developed

Excitement at new cancer treatment - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-35586834

Saturday 13 February 2016

Lymphoma drug may help in fight against Alzheimer's

Alzheimer's preventative drug hope - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-35558438