Time for a multiple post:
The Witching Hour
Vic is taking India to a Room with a Broom, Witches Party at nursery this afternoon. In order to get in the mood, Vic is forcing India to wear a 99p witches hat from Woolworths. Obviously Vic doesn't need to dress up.
Land of the Dead
Nothing beats a zombie movie and Land of the Dead is a good one. The bit where the mall-rampaging zombie gets stuck under a cafe table parasol is worth the ticket price alone. The film also features the stock zombie movie characters of Zombie Bride, Zombie Clown and Zombie Schoolboy. Much to Rob's chagrin, Zombie Babies were missing.
Imagine the cracked nipples.
NaNoWriMo
Wicked Imp is promoting the write a book in a month fest again. I've signed up. There is even a dedicated Regional Writing Group and Forum for Oxfordshire (one of the few hubs for the UK). There is absolutely no way that time will allow me to write 50,000 words in the month of November, but I'll use the exercise to write the first few chapters of some rubbish pulp fiction*. You've got to be on the writing train to enjoy the ride, as I might say in my nanowrimo entry.
* I think I'll call my first book Train Cops. The central characters will be a fiesty red-haired wonder woman detective, ala Ginger Woman, and her laid back partner. Think Mulder and Scully but with more action...
Friday, October 07, 2005
Monday, October 03, 2005
Stolen: My Identity
You may have heard of someone who has had their identity stolen. You can now change that to definitely heard of someone who has had their identity stolen.
We've been away for a week's holiday in Devon and Cornwall. On Monday we were called by a DC Scullett [made-up name] from Midsomershire police force who told us the following:
Some burglar crim had been nicked in Oxford on a job.
He had a load of documents on his person/in his car.
One of those documents was a typed up A4 sheet with Vic and my details on it.
We must have been broken into at Chinnor Road last August -- the day Vic's new passport was "delivered" but never received by us and around the time our address book mysteriously went missing.
Looks as if the passport courier tipped off the crim who then carded our front door and rummaged through our personal and financial details... and left without leaving any sign of forced entry.
Vic was obviously very upset at the news. I was quite cool.
But then we got home on Saturday to find witness statements for us to fill in, together with a photocopy of the notes the crim had on us.
And this is scary stuff:
All our bank account numbers and overdraft limits.
Credit card details and credit limits.
Our places of work.
National Insurance numbers.
My salary figure.
Dates of birth (although mine was a year out).
Our old home address.
Vic's mobile number.
Our parents names and addresses and ex-directory telephone numbers.
Vic's old hotmail account (misspelt) and password.
This would account for the dodgy transaction on my credit card in May.
Fortunately for us, they have neither our new address nor our mother's maiden names. The maiden names would open the flood gates of security by-passes...
The good news is that the crim is banged up and apart from one transaction we haven't been hit too hard (yet). The bad news is I'm left wondering how many other crims out there have our details.
And then we have more:
DC Scullett phones me up this morning to tell me that the police searched the crim's house over the weekend and found two email addresses with Vic and my names in them -- with passwords -- written on a piece of paper.
I ventured into vic_dobscrubandco to discover an empty hotmail account but a contact address in Montpellier, France. It would appear as if the crim has set up a phoney company / mail-forwarding address in Vic's name and has used it, or one similar to it -- to pick up some hot goods to return to the UK: DC Scullet (who clearly cannot use the internet) got quite excited when I told him of the address in Montpellier... apparently he found a big stash of plates and dishes, all from Montpellier, in the crim's house.
I shall enjoy my day in court.
Now go and buy yourself a shredder and a burglar alarm and never believe things simply get "lost" in the post.
You may have heard of someone who has had their identity stolen. You can now change that to definitely heard of someone who has had their identity stolen.
We've been away for a week's holiday in Devon and Cornwall. On Monday we were called by a DC Scullett [made-up name] from Midsomershire police force who told us the following:
Some burglar crim had been nicked in Oxford on a job.
He had a load of documents on his person/in his car.
One of those documents was a typed up A4 sheet with Vic and my details on it.
We must have been broken into at Chinnor Road last August -- the day Vic's new passport was "delivered" but never received by us and around the time our address book mysteriously went missing.
Looks as if the passport courier tipped off the crim who then carded our front door and rummaged through our personal and financial details... and left without leaving any sign of forced entry.
Vic was obviously very upset at the news. I was quite cool.
But then we got home on Saturday to find witness statements for us to fill in, together with a photocopy of the notes the crim had on us.
And this is scary stuff:
All our bank account numbers and overdraft limits.
Credit card details and credit limits.
Our places of work.
National Insurance numbers.
My salary figure.
Dates of birth (although mine was a year out).
Our old home address.
Vic's mobile number.
Our parents names and addresses and ex-directory telephone numbers.
Vic's old hotmail account (misspelt) and password.
This would account for the dodgy transaction on my credit card in May.
Fortunately for us, they have neither our new address nor our mother's maiden names. The maiden names would open the flood gates of security by-passes...
The good news is that the crim is banged up and apart from one transaction we haven't been hit too hard (yet). The bad news is I'm left wondering how many other crims out there have our details.
And then we have more:
DC Scullett phones me up this morning to tell me that the police searched the crim's house over the weekend and found two email addresses with Vic and my names in them -- with passwords -- written on a piece of paper.
I ventured into vic_dobscrubandco to discover an empty hotmail account but a contact address in Montpellier, France. It would appear as if the crim has set up a phoney company / mail-forwarding address in Vic's name and has used it, or one similar to it -- to pick up some hot goods to return to the UK: DC Scullet (who clearly cannot use the internet) got quite excited when I told him of the address in Montpellier... apparently he found a big stash of plates and dishes, all from Montpellier, in the crim's house.
I shall enjoy my day in court.
Now go and buy yourself a shredder and a burglar alarm and never believe things simply get "lost" in the post.
