Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

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Oh dear!

I've just rung an aged friend of mine, who I hadn't spoken to for a few months. He's in a rest home in Croydon. (That's why I gave him a call, because he was 'going out and about a bit' last time we spoke and had actually swapped his really old well-loved Merc for a newer car):

Hi xxxx. How are you?

Terrible! I'm just hoping I die one of these nights.

xxxx! That's not like you to say that. What on earth is wrong?

I've got Shingles. I've had it on my body and now it's in my head. There's no cure for Shingles and nothing much gives me any relief. I am in utter agony with it.

Oh dear! How sad to hear you say that, (etc, etc - and then just a bit more)

The old guy is actually 83. This call made me cry, I don't mind telling you.

Shingles (herpes zoster) results from a reactivation of the virus that also causes chickenpox. With shingles the first thing you may notice is a tingling sensation or pain on one side of your body or face. Painful skin blisters then erupt on only one side of your face or body along the distribution of nerves on the skin. Typically this occurs along your chest, abdomen, back or face, but it may also affect your neck, limbs or lower back. The area can be very painful, itchy and tender. After one to two weeks, the blisters heal and form scabs, although the pain often continues.

The deep pain that follows after the infection has run its course is known as postherpetic neuralgia. It can continue for months or even years, especially in older people. The incidence of shingles and of postherpetic neuralgia rises with increasing age. More than 50% of cases occur in people over 60.

There is no cure.

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I have seen shingles on a person....not a pretty sight.....I thought that it was curable....

I seem to remeber an elderly relation in my childhood, going bilnd from it.

Yes. I had a corneal ulcer in my left eye two years ago. No underlying diagnosis found and eventually it was put down to shingles, although there were no other symptoms. It damn near cost me the sight in my left eye but was cured by the fine people at the Royal Berks eye clinic. Left me with some corneal scarring, though.

MM
You would be fine on these BBs then. They say that in the land of the blind, the one eyed is king.

I've had shingles on my head twice, fortunately I had medication just in time before it went into my eye the first time and the second time it was caught early on. That was a few years ago and although there is no real pain, I still have tingling where it was. My sympathies with your friend Exec.

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Just had a cold call from someone asking if i have had a good day, then went on to ask if a had a broker and had i thought about investing on the Frankfurt exchange , then said he could make me a lot of money investing in a Iron ore share , think it might have been in South America.

I kept on telling him i had no spare cash to invest, then i asked him what company it was and he said if he told me i would buy i then said again i had no money so he said good night and put the phone down.

Frankfurt = Boiler room scam

That was Fred.

http://www.moneymarketing.co.uk/1032780.article?cmpid=MME01&cmptype=newsletter&email=true

Got so fed up with cold phone callers, I either act very deaf and shout down the phone several times, making out I can't hear or understand what they are saying, or if I have the time spend 5 mins giving them the impression I am interested whilst also giving false details.
After about 5 mins the penny drops that I am winding them up and they end the call.
I have been told be a relative that they took this route after getting several calls a week, and they have started to trail off, presumably because these companies share info and word gets around.
I think we should all fight back and give them some of their own medicine back, especially these cold call accident claim companies.
I gave the last one the impression that I was interested and strung her (it was an Indian lady) along for nearly 10 mins giving her all false details. When she eventually clicked, she shouted at me that 'I had been wasting her time'.
I wonder what they think they are doing.

A good tip re cold door callers. I have no bother just saying no, but if they persist, I allow them a few minutes giving me their guff, then tell them I can't afford it. They then as expected offer credit. That is when I tell them I am an undeclared bankrupt with several court orders against me awaiting hearings.
Strangely they then give up.

Let' hope its the last we see of Scottish power cold caller's


" We have been checking and you are on a higher tariff then the rest of your street , and we want to get you on a lower one can i come in to read your meter

Ask them what tarrif you are on. I bet they won't know.

If you are bothered about cold calls then register with the TPS (Telephone Preference Service).

http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/tps/

It is free and all cold calling companies have to match numbers against the TPS list. For junk mail use the MPS (Mailing Preference Service).

http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/mpsr/

For unwanted faxes then use the FPS.

http://www.fpsonline.org.uk/fps/

It is worth doing. It takes about a month to activate.

When you get chicken pox virus particles attach themselves to one of the chromosomes in nerve cells and remain there even after recovery. If these virus particles get knocked off - often by the same substances that cause cancer- they travel down the axons and cause shingles where they exit the nerve cells. I thought every educated person would know that, but then most of you don't seem to know that Jesus rose from the dead either.

On the riots. The signs were there alright, they started when we prevented schools from disciplining pupils and therefore eroded respect that children have for any authority when they were just infants, it was perpetuated when we prevented parents from disciplining their children and reinforced the belief that children can coast through life with few consequences to their actions. It continued when we eroded the value of family and created social support networks that enable people to live comfortable lives without ever having to work, entirely supported on the state with no obligation to take any responsibility for their actions or their life. It gets worse every year as this underclass of undereducated, under disciplined irresponsible individuals continues to have more and more children born into a ghetto culture where underachievement is celebrated, criminality is glorified and parental responsibilities are ignored and abdicated to the state.

Even now some people are queuing up to blame those from outside of these communities for the crimes that are being committed within them, further absolving them of responsibility and giving credence to their vacant and tired claims of victimisation. These are feral children who've been let down by their parents and overindulged by cloying liberalism that confers endless rights with no sense of responsibility. The left seems to be tripping over itself in its desire to flagellate the law abiding citizen over this, its easy to blame the law abiding as then you don't have to deal with culprits, or admit that perhaps you've been wrong for decades on how to deal with these sort of social problems. If you blame everyone else then its easy to conclude that this is a problem that's too big to fix, instead of taking the pragmatic view of dealing swiftly and harshly with those that are guilty of committing these crimes and protecting the innocent law abiding tax payer from their vile, self-destructive behaviour.

So where is God in all of this - certainly not in the lives of those involved.

This_is_me - Agree 100%. There is good in plenty of people though as demonstrated in the cities involved today helping to clear up the mess, many of them are probably unemployed and come from poor backgrounds as well. The problem is as you say the 'ferals', animals of our society. Not sure as suggested removing social security benefits would solve any problems, in all probability make matters worse and crime would escalate even further. Birching in public, stocks etc isn't going to happen either. Some form of National Service has been scoffed at, would surely give them through discipline respect for themselves at least. David Cameron announcing the full force of the Law will be implemented means absolutely Jack Shit.