Be Excellent To Each Other

I believe some of the stores not purchased by Carphone Whorehouse were bought out by management. I also saw one in Barnstable about 3 years ago as well.

I felt like Sam Tyler walking into that place. Step through the door into another era.

What a strange old day it has been. It seems that I am ok on the insurance front...I've gone from:

"Why it's very chilly in house today, how can this be?"
to "Bastards!!!!"
to "They nicked my telly"
to "They nicked my funsquare...and GAMES"
to "Where are my car keys?"
to "They've nicked my car"
to "ARRGGGHHH...I could have been killed / beaten severely"
to "They've nicked my funsquare...and games...bastards"
to "Do I actually have contents insurance?"
to "I have lots of contents insurance, HUZZAH"
to "Oh noes, I left the window open will they give me stuff?"
to "Yes they will! Huzzah, I shall prance off to Meadowhall tomorrow and buy lots of sparkly stuff"
to "Oh noes they will 'evaluate' the claim and source stuff independently"
to "Bugger it, I'd rather not have insurance and prance off to Meadowhall tomorrow to buy lots of sparkly stuff"
to "Morte you are an idiot, hold your horses and let them get on with it".

Now I just have to sit tight and see if they can find my car...tempting the fates I've organised a hire car for the week as the thought of being trapped at home or the victim of public transport is too much to bear.

Oh and the whole 'insurance' process has been fairly painless (so far, no doubt it's going to go tits up), the key people have just left and all the locks in the house and garage have been changed within three hours of the initial phone call.

/I miss my sexy box #sniff#

I applaud you for how well you're taking this, Mr. Morte. I'd be going fucking mental.

Glad things are getting sorted for you Morte.

Me too. I don't have any insurance.

Jesus. I phoned up the UK Borders Agency to check on something and it turns out we need to get my wife's application off tomorrow or she'll be all ILLEGAL CALL THE DAILY MAIL and stuff. I thought we had a couple more weeks to get it all sorted out yet.

I wasn't even going to call today, but didn't want to wait until after the Bank Holiday to check stuffs, so gave them a call in an idle moment.

Fucking good job I did. There's also now a small chance that we'll miss our holiday because we have to make a postal application and not an appointment, which would be fucking horrible, but at least my wife's not going to be breaking the law. Phew.

Also, it's only for another two fucking years and not forever, because she hasn't taken the recently introduced and batshit insane "Living in the UK" test, which requires more random, useless knowledge of the UK than anyone actually born here will ever fucking know.

Dodged a fucking bullet there, though. I don't what the penalty would have been for not sending in her visa application in time, but I guess it's pretty bad. I'm guessing a fine and then having to start the process over again, rather than straight deportation, but they've changed the rules so much since she first came to live here that I don't know anything about what's going on.

Good job you checked Rev.

@ Everyone else...I don't know about taking it well but it's just stuff (DAMN YOU FOR TAKING MY FUNSQUARE ) in the end. Getting robbed I suppose is an almost universal experience and given my lack luster household security regime I've got away with it longer than I should have. . Still children let this be a lesson for you all and make sure all windows and doors are locked tonight...Sleep tight and don't have nightmares...you know the ones of huge men with knives nicking all your stuff WHILE YOU SLEEP.

Having said all that I'm going out on the rob tonight to make myself feel better.

See my avatar. He has a very loud and ferocious bark if anybody comes anywhere near the house. I don't know why I bother with contents insurance.

Hadn't realised this series was even on and it's the last one tomorrow. Hmph.

SORT IT OUT NOW. I'm not lending you any of my stuff if you get it all nicked.

This predates it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazewar

Elite may well owe a debt to Spasim, but as far as I know it's never been verified as to whether Bell and Braben were aware of it.

Dear Beggars of Oxford,

If you want 10p, att 11-30pm, in McDonalds, don;t start getting in my face over it in McDonalds. Also, spilling my coke in my lap isn't going to get you the 10p. When I say "No, thanks, mate, please leave me alone" I mean. This avoids me standing up and going full shout into your face (for the record "You've got 2 options here, I'll make it easy for you: Fuck off out of my my or Fuck off") and you threatening me with your army of tramp mates that were waiting outside. But you didn't spoil my night though, epic night was epic.

I was told by someone who knows about these things that this type of aggressive begging is usually for drugs (specifically heroin). See also the people who get on trains at places like Waterloo pretending they have no money for a ticket and can you give them some.

The look of surprise as I unfolded myself from the seat was, apparently, quite funny.

Did he then proceed to ask you if you wanted fries with that?

Inspired, sir.

I would have given him an extra 100 bananas for "Get to fucking fuck". 6 months on and I'm still waiting for an excuse to use it in public.

Opps, I think I'm still a bit tipsy.

Do we get many beggers reading these boards? I can just imagine the rush in Oxford library...

Crapsticks. Need to give them a call to renew some books.

The Turf and The Bear and Bar Copa were all rather quiet last night. Till James and I appeared.

Surely The Bear just needs a single person in it, either behind or in front of the bar, to qualify as "not quiet".

true. The barmaid complimented me on my Tshirt so I lied to her and said I was a professional surfer.

You've made all nostalgic now, by the way, for the times I used to drink in The Bear and The Turf.

I left my wallet in The Turf one night. They found it, phoned up to cancel my cards for me, just in case it had been stolen, then sent me a message saying they had it. Which I thought was lovely of them.

Not this board.

I like the way that the media is portraying Gary Glitter as an evil overlord who is going to ruin any country he turns up in! That's right, as soon as he sets foot in England he will be the most evil person running free and there's not a thing anyone can do about it! Crazy.

Because he's served for his crime and is now, in the eyes of the law, innocent?

Spare me £2 for a cup of tea mate?

You've got to admit that he certainly has the right malevolent grin and eyebrow style for it though.

edit: and a little pointy beard thing. Proper evil overlord if ever I saw one.

He should really dye that beard black though, for the full Ming The Merciless look.

(SUBS: PLEASE INSERT BRIAN BLESSED PHOTO/QUOTE HERE)

Gary who?

There's a lot of them about in Oxford, it's true.

I used to drink in the Turf, and had a pint in there last time I was in Oxford. Great pub.

Maybe it's because I'm a law abiding citizen but I don't get it. If I was caused this much trouble and hassle then I'd say "Fair enough... sorry.. I'll play by the rules from now on. Can I please just get into a country and not have to spend the rest of my life on a plane"

Here's a question.. people who liked his records before all this came to light, do you still like his records?

QUESTION OF IMPORTANCE:

Who is the lass that does the news on BBC1 from 6am while 9am? I love her. I think it's Ellie Crissell, but I fear I'm wrong and can't find any more info on the bbc website. So I'm going to have to wait until Monday now.

Go go go Bessies! Infosearchmedo.

I can't place the name right now but if it's who I'm thinking of she's one of the increasingly gorgeous BBC London rotation.

I've only been back to Oxford once since I left, a couple of months after leaving.

In related news, I got an email the other day saying that my Oxford Alumnus card should arrive this week. I believe it gets me cheap rates on selected Saga holidays. Hmm.

I thought Saga was for the over 50s? Are you a wrinkly?

I don't like them any less than I did, same as Michael Jackson's records.

Hence the "hmm", as it is of no use to me.

Louisa Preston?

With all the Glitter talk I think the situation is superb for a repost of that advert I found in an old issue of Crash:

Indeed, Also Alice...mmm...Alice...