I received a phone call from my bank the other evening asking if I had attempted to purchase 2 tickets to Zimbawe on my credit card. I said no and after a lot of questions and dialogue we established that my credit card had been hacked and hijacked. A letter from my credit card company was in a similar vein and then another bank contacted me to ask if I has used internet banking recently. It seems my computer was hijacked and most of my details were being fraudulently used by persons unknown. I have not lost anything as it appears most of the attempted purchases were so out of character that my banks stopped the cards immediately.
I have spent two weeks setting up my new accounts with new passwords and new pin numbers. Although irritating it was not as maddening as having to flatten my computer and perform a complete software rebuild and installing resource hogging new anti virus software. In retrospect I am lucky I have suffered no financial loss but it makes me wonder how many other things have been hijacked. Some of my email accounts have certainly been hijacked and i have stopped using them. I hope this expains the lack of posts in the last two weeks. My computer was down and out!!
Although the clocks have gone forward the weather has not warmed up at all. Some seedlings that I placed in the greenhouse four weeks ago have still not germinated and show no signs of doing so. Of those that have germinated, a measly two cucumber plants, five radish and one lettuce have poked their heads through the compost. I will probably end up going to the garden centre to purchase ready grown seedlings of broad beans and peas etc. I can count my blessings I am not relying on this stuff for survival. I think we have established I am no Alan Titchmarsh.
The weekend gone, the first bank holiday of the season, saw us at Ted Magnums for a spring soiree and social get together. As usual I got there early and all went swimmingly well until Ted produced several 8 pint flagons of home made wine. The resulting blackouts and mass amnesia was truly staggering. I felt sorry for one lad who only called in for a few minutes because he was going to a wedding. After an hour he keeled over and was put to bed. Some time later his wife arrived to ask where he was and when told, started to develop scales and breathe fire. Most people backed off and hid in the garden until she had gone. As it was I was almost the last to leave and BC got me home, with some difficulty apparently, and in bed by 11pm. All in all it was a marvellous event and it reminded me of why I stopped making my own wine some years ago. The stuff is ruthless, extremely cheap and very quick to produce.
On a bright note the weather forecast for this summer is excellent. I hope so after the last two truly dismal summers we have had. Combined with the credit crunch the effect has been truly spirit crushing. I dont ever remember seeing so many people who are depressed. Whilst I dont feel as bad as others I have met I really feel lethargic and everything seems like such an effort. A good few days of sunshine would change everything. It would certainly enable me to get lawn mower out and cut the grass, it might even persuade my seedlings to put a spurt of growth on and poke their heads out into the open. I hope the forecasters are right.