So anyway, after calling her insurance company, The Missus was told that she needn’t worry about being sued. She should simply forward the County Court claim forms to the insurance company and their solicitors will deal with the matter. It seems that the claimant hasn’t given our Insurance people all the details of the damage to her car and so they aren’t willing to pay out. They are like us: they can’t understand how a £10 cracked number plate on the Missus’s car could result in this giant claim from damages. Also, reading the claimant’s version of events was very interesting. It seems she is saying that the accident happened at speed with her moving and the Missus trying to overtake. It didn’t: it happened in stationery traffic with the Missus rolling forward into the back of her. Oh well, we’ll have to see how this all pans out. At least, I won’t have to visit The Missus in prison just yet. 🙂
Yesterday, Sony released a patch for the PSP which allows uesrs to the surf the Internet. Boy – I must admit, it’s the cleverest thing I’ve seen in a while. The browser is lightning fast and works with most of the websites I’ve visited. It also means that if you are travelling, you can check your email/surf from a wi-fi hot-spot (like an airport or Starbucks). It means that if I am ever going away again, I can keep in touch WITHOUT taking my laptop. Hurrah! I love technology.
In the post: the last set of VDGG remasters. I am not that familiar with “The Quiet Zone/Pleasure Dome” as I always found it one of the tougher VDGG (or should that be VDG?) albums to get, mainly because of the line-up change, but I am looking forward to getting reacquainted. I had a brief listen to the restored live album “Vital” and it sounds good. There’s still the issue of David Jackson’s sax in the mix but that problem will/can never be fixed. But they’ve done a good job anyway.
Category: Diary
Crisis, what crisis?
We are not rich people. We have a modest salary and like the majority of people in this fair isle, we get by. The last thing you want when you are treading water is to be sued. Today, in the post, legal documents arrived announcing that the Missus is being sued. How comes?
Well it all began on a dark January night this year. The Missus was driving back from work when she hit another car. Don’t worry, it wasn’t a smash. It was a gentle tap. The cars were in near-to-stationary traffic, when the Missus hit the gas when shouldn’t. Such was the impact that the damage to the Lockmobile was a cracked number plate which I repaired for a cost of £10. The lady in front suffed a bump to her car, but the damage was minor, and she immediately complained that she was recovering from a previous whiplash injury. Details were exchanged and the Missus went on her way and reported the incident with her insurance company. Because it was such a small incident, we didn’t think much of it. Hardly any damage, the Missus saying she did it, pay out and good night.
The insurance company investigated, but it wasn’t like most claims where everything is settled really quickly. They came around and took pictures of the Lockmobile and things just took a long time to process. Well it seems that our insurance company isn’t paying this woman and as a result of this, the Missus is now being privately sued for damages.
The claimaint wants upto £5000 for personal injury and another £600 for the damage to her car. This is from a 75-year-old woman who has no employment and who spends her days being a “housewife”, according ot the legal documents. £5500???? (That’s about $10,000 for US readers) Where the heck are we going to get that money? We’ve never been sued before and while the Missus will admit to damaging the car, the whiplash injury seems a little hokey to me.
It reminds me of the time when the Missus got rear-ended by another motorist at high speed. It caused over £700 damage to her car and the whiplash was minor. This was 1996 and she got about £500 for her injuries. But this is different…this is worrying. In her decade of motoring, she’s never had an accident in her life before this, is an unbelievably safe driver and pays her car insurance with gusto. I’m really scared that we are going to get taken to the cleaners for an accident that happened at about 5mph in stationary traffic. We’ve never been in any kind of trouble before and I actually feel sick to the stomach.
Any advice from anyone in the legal industry would be helpful or anyone who’s been through the small claims court. Any links/URLs will be gratefully received.
Recently…
During the week, some youngsters were out leafletting and they were wearing very smart apparel. The Missus remarked about them, I glanced out of the window and automatically said: “They’re BNP”. And I was right. A nasty little, hate-filled leaflet capitalising on the recent bombings fluttered through the door. I should have let Alex the Wonderdog rip it up, but not even he wanted to go near it. It made me very angry, but the Missus managed to convince me not to run out and confront these nazis. Instead, she took the leaflet, screwed it up and threw it in the bin. It made me very angry indeed.
On Saturday, while working in the front garden, the Missus noticed a familiar figure knocking at our neigbours. It was the little Chinese guy who frequents the local pubs in the area selling counterfeit DVDs. Money and goods were exchanged on the doorstep. It seems the pirates are making deliveries now. In the past, it was milk and bread that got delivered to your door, now it is fake DVDs and cigarettes. The mind boggles…this is the measure of the society we live in.
In the post recently: Dead Like Me – Series 2 DVD Boxset. This is one of my favourite TV series of recent years. It is original. The dialogue is superb and actually uses the same kind of language we all use and it features a great ensemble cast. The sad fact is it got cancelled on US TV during the second season. Oh well…we’ve still got the DVDs, eh?
Decided that I needed to start recording at the weekend. I’ve had a little break for a while, just noodling, but now it is time to pick up the guitar and finish that other CD. I recorded a little sketch last night for a track and it sounds like this:
Of course, it’s only the bare bones of the track at the moment and it will probably all change. That’s the wonder of music… 🙂
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not one of those tree-hugging hippy types, but I always find it profoundly sad when a tree is cut down. I don’t know why. Maybe it is because trees are the ultimate biological representation of the passage of time, from tiny acorns to giant oaks, etc. Maybe it is because the removal of a tree has an important impact on the local ecology.
Take our nearby neighbours. He has three trees in his garden. Through the bullying of his next-door neighbour, he has cut one of them down himself and today, the biggest tree of the trio was gone. This tree is home and perching place to hundreds of birds: sparrows, starlings, wood pigeons – we even had a cuckoo in the locality. All those birds will be gone.
Here today…
Gone tomorrow…
The Missus remarked that she’s already seen a couple of doves circling the area where the missing tree once stood. Obviously they are confused and can’t figure out where their nests have gone.
Oh well, that’s 50+ years gone in a couple of hours and by the swing of a chainsaw…
With a heavy heart, I’ve put my Epiphone Black Beauty up on eBay…bid generously, gentle reader.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7337904881
On a separate note, I was snooping around Friendsreunited yesterday, trying to see if I could spot any chums. While snooped on Friendsreunited, I found an entry for my half-sister. It seems she’s just graduated from university with a 2.1 degree. Well done, you…
In the post: Adrian Belew – Side Two (Autographed) 🙂
Stomach pains still there, but subsiding…almost at the end of the pain cycle. Hurrah!
The mystery driver who deliberately drives down our road is upping the ante. He/she is now doing this in the early hours of every morning now. Before we thought that it was a random occurance, but something interesting happened. The other morning, I was awake in bed reading and I heard a car drive slowy into the road and as it approached the Lock Mobile, it revved up deliberately to trigger the car alarm. Before it might have been accidental, but now it seems to be a deliberate act. The culprit strikes between the hours of 1.30am and 3.50am and the engine in their car literally shakes the earth. I don’t get it. Why is this happening? Is it a grudge? Is it someone’s idea of a joke? What is this? Where we live is very quiet and it is unusual for cars to even travel down our road after midnight. I just don’t know what to make of it. If I mention this to the police that a phantom driver is disrupting our sleep they will laugh at us. If I lay in wait and pounce on the mystery driver, what then? It’s a strange one and it has been happening for about a month now and now the “attacks” are now daily. Bizarre world, ain’t it?
In the post: a letter from the Royal Mail explaining to me that my package wasn’t lost at all. Well geez, I know that now, but at the time when I contacted the Royal Mail they said it hadn’t been delivered. All this after watching a programme on TV last night about how shoddy the UK postal service is. They employ thieves and criminals to steal our mail and then won’t take responsibility for it. Hurrah! Makes you proud to be British…
A nice chap called Nadim wrote some nice words about some of my music:
Darren Lock I Am Not Your Enemy
Cool instrumental stuff from He Who Should Not Be Mentioned Here But Was Anyway. The couple of songs have funky lyrics and take some time to get used to, but they’re great nonetheless. Give the guy a record contract already!
That’s good, innit? Makes it worth it. I get very little feedback or enthusiasm, so I normally presume that no-one actually likes my music once they’ve bought it. This kind of restores the balance and makes me want to make some more music. (I know, I know…you all want me to stop, but I won’t. Mwaaahahahhhaaaa!)
Recently, I found a really neat CD case that holds four CDs. I am a bit of a packaging fetishist and whenever I see a clever CD case or packaging idea, I think about how I can apply it to my own work. I bought a pack of these cases and redesigned the artwork for “Sows’ Ears & Silk Purses” so it would fit. I usually use a four-CD case, which is styled as a DVD case. These are bigger and heavier and it costs me more to ship them to the US. The cases are smaller, lighter and will mean I can ship more off without breaking the bank.
Meanwhile, the sharp stomach pain is subsiding. Hopefully, it will be gone by tomorrow. The self medication with oil of peppermint capsules always seems to work.