“Can you ride tandem?”

The catch phrase,”Can you ride tandem?” comes from a long line of PG tips tea adverts.
You may remember it?
It seems appropriate this week to mention it as it was called ‘Tour de France.’

Well until today I couldn’t say that I’d ever tried a tandem, but this afternoon that all changed.
At our annual  cycling club BBQ we strolled into the garage to ‘ew’ and ‘awe’ over the host’s new acquisition – a super light framed bike. The garage was full of bikes and bike bits and other bike related stuff. The car didn’t have a look in. The mower was squeezed in a corner.
I wandered off after seeing the bike, but soon returned to see what was going on when I heard jollity: a tandem had been unearthed and various folk were being allowed a go. Continue reading ““Can you ride tandem?””

Insurance and rip off

It is that time of year for me again, car insurance renewal.

For the past few years I have insured through the IAM (Inst of Advanced Motorists) and their people in Northern Ireland, they are my broker so to say. Now I know that insurance has rocketed but from 2 years ago £320 to a quote of £495 now, full no claims, no points etc is ludicrous.

I phoned them and said can you improve on this figure as it seems very high and got the normal “uninsured drivers, legal claims, people suing etc”

Taking this into account I phoned round wasting my time and came up with a quote of £403 from the AA (that was a surprise). I phoned my people back and said, tuff tits better quote from the AA, immediately they quoted £380.

Why do we have brokers when they are not doing the best for me by doing the phoning round and getting the best quote, if they do nothing then I may as well do the calling, but I really feel I should be paying someone else to do this.

Dewani extradition update

Dewani High Court appeal (18 December 2011) update here

Anni Dewani – 12 months on update here (13 November 2011)

Update here (10 August 2011) … Judge rule for extradition

In my post of May 4 I wrote “The extradition hearing has now been postponed to July 18 awaiting a psychiatric report, that’s OK by me, we’ll wait.”

Well, we’ve waited, hopefully tomorrow we will finally get an answer as to whether he’s nuts or going to be returning to Cape Town (which is a really nice place to visit in the spring, as some here will attest.)

It’s not just me eagerly awaiting the outcome of the court’s decision, Anni’s Mother, Father and 8 other relatives are flying into London to hear the outcome.

Speaking from his home in Sweden, Mr Hindocha  (Anni’s Father) said Continue reading “Dewani extradition update”

The Farmer’s Tale

Second last day in Oz and we’re spending the arvo chilling in the back garden with a few cold tinnies – my shout before Donald gets started again.

This morning, we went to the Noosa Farmers’ Market. A local Sunday institution and the real deal. You actually have to have grown, bred or made the stuff yourself before you can sell it there.

I did a quick circuit, bought a gourmet pie for later in the day (lamb and rosemary aka a ‘jolly jumbuck’) then sat down with a coffee as Mrs M set off on lap two. Another guy sat down beside me and said that he was wife-waiting. When I said I was too, he leapt on my accent and asked if I was Australian. Continue reading “The Farmer’s Tale”

Students

Well said, Christina. He made a mistake. He’s young and did something foolish. It is a shame his life has been ruined.

Interestingly, Girton has let him sit his second year exams.

PS. Oscar Wilde’s poem was an indictment of the Victorian penal system; ironic really.

For goodness sake, he didn’t kill anyone, and I doubt he would do so. I wouldn’t dispute he needs a lesson but….