Rabbit Thought of the Day

Am having a bit of a break at the moment, I have spent most of the morning do a taking off electrical components on a set of drawings and to tell you the truth my eyes are going a bit funny, my own fault really I forgot my glasses. So am search the net on articles on how to service my bike (probably not good for eyes either).

I need to sort out my gears, I think the cable has stretched and the gears don’t change very smoothly and there are a couple of gears that I can’t select. So I will have a go at setting them this weekend it seems straight forward according to the information I have read, but nothing is that easy, I could take it to the local bike shop and have them do it, but it would cost £14 for something that seems so easy and I hate wasting money.

US illusionist David Blaine has begun another endurance challenge - hanging upside down for almost three days. The 35-year-old magician was hoisted by his heels over the Wollmann ice rink in New York on Monday.

He intends to remain there until late Wednesday, despite doctors' concern about the effect of the stress on his internal organs and blood circulation.

Blaine said he was "doing all right" on Monday, though he did admit his head felt like it was "about to explode".

His previous stunts include spending 72 hours encased in ice, seven days underwater and 44 days without food in a glass box. Blaine is suspended from a four-storey high metal frame, though he can be lowered to speak to fans face to face.

He is also able to free one leg, using its weight to raise his head to a horizontal position. For two nights and three days he will neither eat or sleep, taking liquid through a straw and passing water through a catheter.

Asked to compare this current spectacle with his earlier endeavours, the Brooklyn-born performer said this was "the most difficult for sure".

"The others you could get into them soon after the start," he told an interviewer. "But this one is tough from the get-go."

Blaine said he would use "sheer willpower" to complete the challenge - inspired in part by his hero, the legendary escapologist Harry Houdini.

He has said he liked to test his endurance "because it gives me a different perspective, for a short duration".

A herring takes a paddle at Walton on the Naze, well it was a warm day, I even went in myself later in the day and I’m a wimp. This was one of the better days of the summer which was over all too quickly.

I wish I was still here, at Walton on the Naze, it was beautiful day and the beach as you can see was virtually deserted, this was taken only three weeks but the change in the weather has been dramatic. The last couple of days have seen a definite chill in the morning, the leaves on the trees are beginning to turn to orange and browns as autumn begins to take hold.

I know we never really had a summer, but I look at the pictures I took a couple of weeks and I long for the summer days that we never had.

We have some new office accommodation being built the current situation is one of the blocks is yet to start, while the steel erectors are building the frame of another block. The third block is the most advanced the steel frame has been completed and the concrete is now being poured, yesterday they poured the first floor and today they are pouring the ground floor and there seems to be an endless queue of concrete mixers discharging they load into a concrete pump.

They will continue until all the floor is complete which depending on the size will probably take all day, I can remember watching a program on the construction of the Hover Dam and they were saying that once the pouring starts then it must continue until all the concrete has been poured in that instance they had crews working in shifts and it took 2 days to pour the concrete a massive operation, considering if anything went worn then they would have break out any concrete poured. Thankfully this is not quite that big.

The point is, I love hard work I can watch it all day!

Many private clamping firms are abusing government legislation aimed to protect private landowners from illegal parking with the result that drivers are being victimised and forced to pay unmerited fees.

The AA's Head of Public Affairs, Paul Watters, has recently said that "Enough is enough. Clampers and removers seem to be using the SIA (Security Industry Authority) license to increase their profits at the expense of decency and fairness...It is time for the SIA to revoke the licenses of clampers who operate outside of the law."

Clamping firms are required to have a SIA license but there are no rules on what fees they charge, which has led to some outrageous cases of injustice. Here are ten of the worst examples:

1) Victims were given the OK to park by clampers - who then clamped the cars anyway and charged a £300 release fee.

2) Clampers charged £45 to call a tow truck to remove a car and then another £45 to cancel it.

3) In Bath clampers charged a 'swearing' fee of £100 on top of the £125 clamp release fee.

4) A woman in Birmingham arrived nine minutes after her parking ticket expired to find her car clamped with a £390 release fee. She was left stranded and alone all-night waiting to pay the fine the next morning.

5) Ambulances at Kings College Hospital in South London were clamped by security staff after they spent 'too long' in the drop-off bays. They were then charged a £50 release fee.
 

6) In May 2008 a man in Tredworth, Gloucestershire had his car clamped while it was parked on his own driveway because one of the rear wheels protruded onto the pavement. In protest the man proceeded to saw the car in half with an angle-grinder.

7) A clamping firm described as 'aggressive and bullying' was taken to court recently after the two men who ran the firm were reported for actions such as clamping a car performing a three-point turn, clamping cars that still had the engine running, and even attempting to clamp a car that was moving.

8) An electrical engineer left his van in a parking bay in Tottenham, North London that could only be used before 8am. He returned to the van before the required time only to find that it had been clamped anyway with a £70 release charge.

9) A man from Huddersfield was clamped in an empty forecourt while picking up his niece from dancing class. He was initially charged a £95 release fee but this rose dramatically to £3,995 in five months after he challenged the clamping firm. The case was taken to Huddersfield County Court where the man was awarded £9,000 in compensation.

10) In February 2008 an unattended hearse was clamped with the coffin still in the back while undertakers made preparations for a funeral.

A challenge against employers' rights to make people retire at 65 has reached a key stage in the European courts. An Advocate-general - a senior legal adviser to the European Court of Justice - is due to give recommendations in the case.

Age Concern has challenged British law, which since 2006 has allowed employers to compel retirement after age 65. Some 260 people in Britain have cases at employment tribunals which depend on the court's ultimate decision.

Many believe they have been unfairly treated and are worse off because they had to retire at 65.

Campaigners, who believe that setting an age limit is discriminatory, stressed that the case would run for some time - even if the Advocate-General made recommendations in their favour.

The Advocate-General's view could influence the judges who are expected to give their ruling in the case just before Christmas.

If they found in the campaigners' favour, the case would then return for a final hearing in a British court.

The employers' organisation the CBI has argued that a normal retirement age of 65 is an essential management tool. It has added that employees can ask to work beyond that age. Employers have a duty to consider these requests, and the CBI has said that this system has proved to be a success.

Why should people be forced to retire at 65, I think of a number of points that would make it advantageous to keep people in employment for as long as possible.

If you are forced to retire at 65 then a lot of skill and experience is going to waste.

People are a lot fitter now than years ago and people are able to work for longer.

If more people are in work than the revenue from these people will help the national economy.

Two of my colleagues were forced to retire from this company, they were very happy to keep working, but the company forced them out, fortunately they have found other construction firms willing to take them, and now our company is struggling to find engineers to replace them, stupid isn’t it.

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A pet food company has come up with a novel way of gauging the public mood ahead of the New Zealand's general election -- which political leader would you like to see fed to the dogs?

Masterpet has made rubber chew toys for dogs with likenesses to the two politicians vying to run the country after the November 8 election, website http:/www.stuff.co.nz has reported.

Masterpet said it will publish sales of the Helen Clark and John Key toys as an informal "dog tucker poll." Whoever sells the most could be in trouble come election night.

"Early data in our reverse poll suggests a preference for (Prime Minister) Helen Clark," Masterpet North Island sales manager Peter Couchman told Stuff.co.nz.

So far Masterpet's poll mirrors actual opinion polls, which show Clark's Labour-led government trailing the main opposition National party, led by Key.

A Reuters survey of five polls has National on 50 percent support compared to 36.3 percent for Labour.

Probably more accurate than a political analyst.

At today’s un-official  weigh I have lost another 3 pounds, It will be another two weeks before I see the nurse again but the weight is still coming down I am sure when I do get to see she will be pleased I know I am. When I first started this campaign on the 14-Jul I weighed in at 17stone 13 pounds, this morning I was down to 15stone 9 pounds a total loss of 32 pounds.

Last night I was out on my bike, but I only did the short route which is 11.5 miles. When I first began the exercise routine my route was only 6 miles and I struggled to complete that, half way round I had to stop for a rest and on the way home I had walk up the hill. Now after only 10 weeks I have a route that’s 18.3 miles and I don’t stop nor do I have to walk up the hill, I can cycle up it with out any bother. I great improvement since I started and I am sure there is more to come.

Tuesday, to me this is the worst day of the week. I don’t know why but I have always disliked Tuesday. For most people its Monday, I can’t explain why it just a feeling I have, maybe I just strange.

I called in at Tesco’s last night to retrieve Rosemary’s debit card, fortunately I found someone more amenable than the guy on the desk yesterday morning. You may recall that I had problems yesterday morning in the Tesco garage, while still half asleep I put what turned out to be Rosemary’s debit card in the wrong slot at the self service pump in the garage. The cashier yesterday morning said that it required a engineer and if I left my name and address he would call me when the card was retrieved.

On the off chance that something had been done I called in to Tesco’s only to be told that nothing had been, no engineer had been called and the night cashier had not passed on any information. Great I thought, bloody typical, but my opinion of young check out girls suddenly received a boast. After a quick description on what had happened I was greeted with news, no problem I can get it for you now, I did say, doesn’t it need an engineer, nope she told me it happens all the time, so after 30 seconds of fiddling about inside the box I had my card.

So it seems that a young girl was very helpful, while an older guy just couldn’t be arsed to help, you see they is hope in this world.