I do write all this old crap so people can read it and leave comments, loads of people tell me they read the blog but I never get comments from them, so if you’re reading this, leave one and feel free to do so in the future too, even if it’s just to call me a twat, the feedback would be much appreciated.
5 comments February 29th, 2008
Should be all go from tomorrow, time to get the ball rolling at last! Jon the plumber has just rung me and invited me to a birthday do at the local pub next month but he’s warned me he will leave if I go ahead and book a Strippergram, dunno why as I was gonna book her for me! Ahem!! maybe not… Would like to write about all the exciting stuff I’ve been doing but I haven’t done anything so that’s it for now…
2 comments February 28th, 2008
1. Child’s age, awareness, appearance.
2. Any apprehension on the child’s part.
3. Area. Whether a rough estate, built up area, open country etc.
4. Street lighting, traffic and facilities to cross busy roads.
(Footbridges, Pelican Crossings).
5. Potential areas of opportunity for an attack on route.
6. Statistics of attacks or attempted abductions on young people in the local area.
This is a grey area, a lot of muggings these days are attributed to the victim carrying a device such as an iPod or mobile phone, white headphones are a dead give away to a would-be mugger. Here’s the irony, these things are fashion accessories and are used to display symbols of status by the younger generation much as the reason why some adults (term used loosely) buy Beemers and ridiculously large 4X4’s, so… they are meant to be on display! I’m sure most young teens are well aware of the potential for being mugged in their local area, probably more so than the parents themselves in some cases. There’s a fine line between fashion and reason, it doesn’t take a person with a degree is sociology to understand that walking through a group of drunk teenagers outside the local One-Stop on a Friday evening, wearing a well displayed iPod while texting on an expensive mobile phone is not a particularly wise thing to do, and I’m sure most young people would avoid such a situation whether carrying expensive technology or not. The child’s ability of dealing with such a confrontation is a dodgy one, having possibly never witnessed such a situation before it is difficult to speculate on this. It is more likely the child will co-operate and then leg it rather than freeze in fear or start a fight, the latter ill-considered reaction would be somewhat irrational as the attacker could potentially be forearmed.
Around 56% of child abductions are committed by a person the child is familiar with, nearly half of them are one of the parents, if you are a parent of the child an abduction is only deemed such if the child is taken out of the country. In the case of anyone else it is simply the detention of a child without lawful authority or reasonable excuse. With most stranger attempted child abductions the most common scenario is a male offender attempting to entice a child into a car or physically attempting to drag a child from a public place, older children should be well aware not to get into a car with a stranger and if they were dragged from a public place it’s highly probable there will be witnesses as public places are generally over-looked and offer better lighting, this could dramatically decrease the likelihood of such an attempt. Where might a child be more vulnerable? On a town housing estate notorious for gangs of teens it will be more likely the child be mugged or be involved in an unprovoked attack, in a small country village this would be unlikely, though it would be easier for an abductor to operate in such an area. So, it would appear to be safest in a moderately busy area not generally known its high crime rate. Statistically the average age of abductees is 10 and girls are more prone to abduction than boys.
Well I was subjected to a moral confrontation only last week that got blown out of proportion, I let my daughter pop home to collect her things to stay the night, it was well lit, it is a nice area, my daughter is responsible for her years and did not show any signs of trepidation. My daughter returned half hour later with my other daughter who’s 2 years older, this was their mother’s idea. So in retrospect, they could’ve both been kidnapped! I won’t mention the word neurotic…Damn!!!
Add comment February 23rd, 2008
So here I sit on a Friday afternoon a week away from payday when I have to give away every penny I’ve earned this month. Was thinking of throwing all of March’s wages into setting my self up a flat, realistically thats probably not so wise, maybe April, that’s always been a good month for me…or has it? Anyhow back to work! Bfn.
Add comment February 22nd, 2008
My boss speaks very quietly, he always turns away from you when talking and to top it all he’s a northerner! Apparently it’s a habit of his to speak vaguely and out of context, so the lads I went for a beer with on Friday were saying, Just Great! So it’s not me, but wait! I have another person to turn to, the senior engineer Roland, surely he can explain things in plain English right? Wrong, he’s French… Though his English is good he’s probably learned a lot of it from my boss, as he also mumbles and talks in riddles, throw in my hearing loss and include the accent and he may as well be an illiterate Chinaman translating English from Bengali. So I’m forever asking for them to repeat themselves which can be embarrassing, and when they do I still don’t hear…You get the picture.
There’s a good reason for this moan:
1) It’s technical work, some of which I’m new to.
2) I need to understand their procedures (I don’t think they have many).
3) I am supposed to be making an impression.
4) These guys are the only two in the company who understand what I need to be doing.
So I need to be wailing and wingeing about not being able to understand what the hell everyone’s on about, but I’ve felt like poo the past couple of weeks and can’t be bothered. Hopefully in a week or two I will be more in touch with what’s going on.
1 comment February 20th, 2008
Have been flicking around on 2 metres (144-146Mhz Amatuer Band) recently because of lift conditions, in particular the GB3DA Danbury repeater nr Chelmsford in Essex has been consistently very strong (4-6bB) and I decided to break in and have a natter, at that point a kid called Rhys who was 11 years old called through and it turns out he has only just passed his foundation exam and earned himself an M3 callsign (ZFM), transmitting from an antenna on a metal tin from his bedroom in Harlow, North London. So I say hi and explain that it isn’t bad chatting to me 90 miles away on the south coast with such a simple set up and only 10 watts and he was seriously chuffed, and I thought how nice it was that a kid had bothered to take the exam and have the confidence to join in a net on a busy repeater, and he was very proficient too, only one operator had a moan about his slightly rookie radio procedure but he soon got fobbed off. Maybe Chain could access this repeater… hmmm.
Add comment February 18th, 2008
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