SCAMMERS NEED TO BONE UP ON THEIR TROLLEYBUS DATA

had one of those exquisite moments getting a scammer wrong footed this evening, good afternoon I'm calling from the insurance department, which insurance company, Imperial Brighton.. you've never been near Brighton in your life... yes yes I'm in the city of Brighton... ok some quick questions about Brighton.. which year did Brighton trolleybuses stop running, yes sir yes I'm in Brighton... ok so not so hot on transport I'll give you an easy one, what was Brighton called before Brighton... errr, lets google it... come on now I'm not giving you time to google... err yes its anglo saxon... sorry mate for a scammer you are an incompetent w**** I'll leave you to imagine how I signed off before I blocked the number.

Mandy however did get scammed once this past couple of months when we were doing battle with Cheshire East council, she gave up trying normal sources and tried Just Answer, I wasn't aware of the source... beware a scam registered in Denmark, offers all sorts of advice from legal to plumbing for a price but after you have coughed up your money you find that they have signed you up to a subscription service and will take the money each month. There are just so many scams out there.

Talking of East Cheshire council we did finally get our puncture replacement tyre refunded reference the now infamous pothole in Plumley next village along.  We are now trying to drag this council through the local government ombudsman for failing to respond to a complaint to stymie a legal challenge to blocking off local roads for the disabled drivers. They eventually amended their road blocking and after that opened up a small section as temporary disabled parking which is always, we mean always full of non disabled driver's cars, a disc only seen when Mandy got in on two occasions.

On the back of this we are going to put in a formal complaint of discrimination against Cheshire West and Chester, yes catchy name for a council isn't it ( used to be Vale Royal) meant nowt but easy to say and remember! Their naughty bit was changing the way you get your blue disabled parking disc of which Mandy has had on since 1967 when she got a three wheel invacar, now to get the new disc which ran out after several years you took it in and a nice person gave you a new one. Now it takes six weeks although we won't tell you and ensure maximum stress and anxiety. We;ll charge you and we've created a process which you'll need a degree in computer operation to work but its really easy as they give you a nice check list to make sure you have the right docs before you start. OK there's a catch, you just know that don't you. Yes the list is wrong, sounds like Sunday morning prayers, the things we have listed may not be needed but those we list have omissions and we have not listed.

By the way in case you are confused or bored did Mandy mention that when she spoke to a Knutsford councillor about the parking problem they suggested getting a non disabled person to do it for you, imagine if the issue was race, no we don't serve blacks but we can get a white to shop for you.

OK where were we oh yes, blue badge , yes you have to tell them your toilet habits and problems to get one, you apparently need to share this along with all sorts of other personal info with about 20 organisations or you return to start and lose a blue badge. In other words sign your life away or you don't get one. Having eaten humble pie and filled it in you then are told to wait for up to six weeks. Oh did we mention that you needed to be receiving a government award called PIP or have to jump through another 20 hoops, no jump hoop no get badge though. Hang on isn't PIP that discredited test that cost the tax payer a fortune, come to think og it Esther McVey our local MP thinks that was a splendid idea, oft times quoted on what scroungers those with disabilities are. Good luck any way with all that.

The to do list gets longer  every day, the pleas for money come in all directions, the church, the music college we support, the local opera theatre we are 'friends' with, the Polio Fellowship... where is our money bag, Mandy has lost the map and I can't remember. The nice tax lay phoned ref help with the impossible tax return for the house we rent out which has tax paid for in Ireland  only its time to do the UK return to work out that we don't need to pay anything as they have a reciprocal agreement in Ireland and anyway the lady now does eat out to help out restaurant return so perhaps we can all leave it a while. Is this surreal or what. In between helping our contacts through all the societies etc figure out what the government flood of bumf means we are getting a bit snowed under but happy to have kept a lot of people amused with the transport films we put together.

)Pause to mop up cine film cement, bottle went over when film broke as the take up spool supplied with Chinese scanner machine sometimes doesn't move round when it should...

I wonder if I'll get time to go out filming next week, oh thunder storms just what we need...

Here are some screen shots of the filmd I've scanned the last couple of week, remember taken from really tiny little Standard 8 cine frames.