There are 119 readable entries.
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Monday, November 29, 2004
My first day of jury service today and i have to say that it was probably the single most boring, un-constructive day of my life.
I set off at 8:30 this morning to get my train to Preston to arrive at court for 9:15, after having registered with the usher at the desk in the jury waiting room we all had to wait for our selections.
Finally at 11:00 we were taken down to court 7 for jury selection, at this point we had all been given a piece of paper with our name, jury number and post code on it.
As we entered the court, which had the Judge, Prosecution and Defence lawyers AND the prospective defendants present we were all cycled around the court for selection, there was a lot of us in this group...normally the 12 jurors are selected from about 15 but our group was some 30 people strong, which became apparent once we had taken our places.
The Judge preceded to inform us that this trial is likely to run to the end of January and that anybody who felt that prior commitments made it impossible for them to sit on a trial of that length should inform the court immediately. some 17 jurors were excused from the jury selection at this point before we progressed onto the next stage.
The Judge then instructed the prosecution to read out the names of all the prospective witnesses so that the remaining jury select could make sure that we stayed totally impartial by removing the possibility of any of us knowing any witnesses that may be called...after spending 20 mins listening to over 130 names we lost 2 more jurors.
It was then that our little pieces of paper came into play, we all handed them to the court usher who in turn handed them to the court clerk (your tax pounds at work!!) who randomly went through the pack of papers calling out names, these were to become the jury proper for the next 2 months.
At the end before us 'cast-offs' (yes, that includes me) were dismissed from the court.
Anyway, us remaining jury select made our way back to the jury waiting area so that we may be called to another court for selection...this was about 12:00 and thats where we stayed for the rest of the day, we had lunch at 13:00 till 14:00 and then they made us wait around till 16:30 before finally sending us home.
By this point i was absolutely knacked as there was nothing to do, i had read everything i had brought with me and you are not permitted to leave the jury waiting area at all apart from the lunch hour.
And to top it all i have to go back again tomorrow to go through it all again, because the process is so random there is a possibility that you could go the whole 2 weeks without EVER being selected for jury service.....2 weeks of sitting on your ass clock watching!!!.
Posted by Mark @ 11:21 PM GMT
Sunday, November 28, 2004
I have come to the conclusion that someone is slipping magnets into our tyres as last night we had yet another bloody puncture due to some inconsiderate wanker leaving bolts in the road.
Theres nothing i like more than wasting the odd £150 on a brand new tyre to replace one that was only a month old anyway as we had the rears replaced last month, not that i have actually replaced the tyre yet as Kwik-Fit don't actually have any Continentals in stock for my size and none of the surrounding stores have them either..they are going to order me one but it won't be here till Mon/Tue and i have to go to Preston in the morning for jury service, so looks like i'm going to have to use that horribly outdated, smelly mode of transport known as the train.
Once i have paid out for the new tyre that will bring our total spending on car rubber since owning the car (September 03) to just shy of £1000...which is really starting to take the piss!!!
Posted by Mark @ 02:10 PM GMT
Saturday, November 27, 2004
The Home Entertainment setup is pretty much complete now having added the last component, a Samsung 32" Widescreen, Flatscreen tv...looks lovely too although it was a bugger to get in the house and we had to take it out of the box to get it in. The unit that it sits on is just big enough for it and after spending a few hours setting it up and plugging in the various scart leads i decided to sit down and watch The Matrix again in full Dolby Digital 5.1 surround......lovely
Posted by Mark @ 04:08 PM GMT
Thursday, November 25, 2004
Arse..had almost forgot that on Monday i have to attend Preston court for Jury selection and if i'm chosen i will be on Jury service for the next possible 10 days..on the plus side is the generous employment and travel expenses that you can claim so all is not to bad..if you are needed for more than ten days then they pay you about £110 per working day..nice.
I must admit though that i'm not really looking forward to sitting for up to 6-8 hours listening to a bunch of paid liars trying to make a case for or against some social outcast...i probably got better things to do....like playing GTA San Andreas on my PS2.
Posted by Mark @ 08:30 PM GMT
Saturday, November 20, 2004
Last night at Flares the staff had a gunge fest in the name of Children in Need, out of the list of possible candidates to be gunged Fliss got the most nominations and at midnight was subjected to some sticky fluids.
Although the 'gunge' was in the most part custard it was deemed a bit runny so to thicken it up they mixed flour and beans with it...someone also had the bright idea to mix chicken soup powder aswell...yuk!!!
In all they raised over £700.
2 showers later and Fliss still has a healthy jaundiced glow about her with a distinctive smell 
Posted by Mark @ 10:05 PM GMT
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Yes..shock, horror..i have posted!!! but it's in a good cause, my lovely wife Felicity (Flick, Fliss...you choose) has her 26th birthday today.
It has been an opportunity to buy the old bird plenty off lovely presents to spoil her rotten and later tonight i will be taking her out for a meal so if your out and about at your local watering hole tonight then just raise a glass and wish her well.
There has been loads to post about to be honest in most cases i just couldn't be arsed to make a post, one reason for that has been that i have been enjoying my new game Football Manager 2005, not everybody's cup of tea i know but it keeps me happy...when Aaron lets me play on it....incidently, computers in general..i.e my computers are really pissing me off no end, there just seems to be a never ending procession of problems that cause them to hang and lockup which will slowly but surely drive me back to my PS2 for my gaming entertainment.
Speaking of entertainment i bought myself a nice new toy, being fed up with the poor playback ability of the PS2 as far as DVD's are concerned i finally bought a Home Cinema System.
It's a little JVC system kicking out 600w and decodes most of the common sound formats like Dolby Digital and DTS as well as Pro Logic 2. It's not however capable of decoding the new ES formats but then again not many systems are for less the £500 and i wanted to keep some money left over for the 32" Windscreen TV thats now on order...lovelly 
One final bit of news is that Aaron is doing well, he's now 4 and a half months old and weighing in at a hefty 17 pounds, he's getting quite verbal so it won't be long before he telling us where to go and he seems more interested in trying to walk than trying to crawl so i think he will go straight to walking..just like his daddy.
Posted by Mark @ 07:38 PM GMT
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