Friday February 7th 2025 "My answer to today's scammer problems - just move house!"

I think I've made a significant breakthrough, this week, a breakthrough which could help the fight against all the scammers and fraudsters who scrape a living trying to get our money off us. And not only that but I want to share it with you today, my dear blog-reading Friends, completely gratis and for nothing (and "for nothing" is even cheaper than gratis, or at any rate no dearer, let's say!).

First off, however, I want to emphasise that we shouldn't be worrying about scammers too much - life's too short, and my medium-to-long-suffering wife Lois and I think that, anyway, the world's scammers have probably lost track of us, now that we've moved house. 

Is that a good tactic? Or is that a good tactic haha!

flashback to January 2nd - we get our brainwave about defeating

the scammers and the fraudsters: we just moved house,  but - and this is

the important bit - we didn't  tell them we were doing it!

Yes, today I can exclusively reveal, to honest readers of my blog only (!), that Lois and I, formerly residents of Malvern, Worcestershire, are now two of Liphook, Hampshire's newest residents. We moved  here, to Railway Cuttings, East Hampshire (exact house number withheld!), only on January 3rd 2025, and we're pretty sure the scammers all think we still live in Malvern. 

our new home in Railway Cuttings, East Hampshire: here I 

showcase our gas and electric smart-meter, but keep that to yourselves

please! Hackers could make use of that info, so remember ,'mum's the word'!

So, yes, just to be on the safe side, if you know any scammers, don't tell them our new address - the above "gen" is classified medium to top-secret info, and I share it with you today on a strict "need-to-know" basis! 

[All right, we get the idea (!) - Ed]

And I think people generally these days, certainly in our new home-town of Liphook, and in East Hampshire as a whole, are beginning to feel altogether safer these days, and becoming bolder - like this woman whose story is featured on the front page of this morning's Onion News (East Hampshire Edition). Did you see it?

So you see, the whole climate of our dealings with scammers IS starting to feel safer now, and we honest folk have certainly got those scammers and fraudsters on the run, that's for sure! And that's ONE climate-change story that's good news for all of us, isn't it.

Another thing - have you noticed how, not just your average scammer, but more and more door-to-door-salesmen and con-men these days are speaking some foreign language, maybe Albanian or Bulgarian, obviously not when they're speaking to ordinary Brit householders, like you and me, but just when they're talking to each other, and maybe you hear them laughing uncontrollably amongst each other, when they judge, with justifiable satisfaction, that they've "nailed it" or, in ordinary language, "made a sale", by the sheer quality of their information, and of their identity documents or "badges", plus, above all, their very convincing 'patter'?

a  typical foreign dishonest door-to-door salesman, with (in background)

some of his close friends - these guys have a tremendous sense of humour,

Lois and I find, and they often joke with each other in some foreign language (!)

when they judge they've "nailed it" or "made a sale/killing", which is fair enough!

Yes, have you ever wished you could understand those Albanian or Bulgarian (or whatever (!)) jokes that they share with each other - they must be a real hoot, to judge from the salesmen's obvious delight!

just one of the hilarious Albanian jokes featured in 

Jeremy Taylor's best-seller: now very much the go-to book on the subject

Well, Lois and I tend not to know what these guys are laughing about, but one day we'll get around to mastering their languages: we already know bits of Danish, although so far we haven't met a Danish scammer.

Sorry! I know that the above has been a rather long-winded introduction to my main news today - that the local U3A Intermediate Danish group that Lois and I lead "for our sins (!)", will be starting up again next week on Skype. One of the (few!) privileges that our position as leaders grants us is that when we move house, as we do repeatedly to evade scammers, we can just "close down the group", at least until we've unpacked most of our stuff, or at least stashed it in the garage, which is fair enough, we think!

flashback to 2021: us starting our very first Skype session of the local 

U3A Intermediate Danish group that we lead (for our sins!)

New members to our group always welcome incidentally if you're free next Thursday, but no "absolute beginners", or other time-wasters please, and above all, no Albanians haha! But watch this space !!!!

And while I think of it,  never never never never be tempted to move house, will you. Promise me, and promise me now (!). It's just not worth it. 

Just notifying your new address to numerous authorities - you would not BELIEVE how many utility companies, insurance companies, local councils, the tax office, DVLA Vehicle Licensing etc, want to know our new address! And to make it like, a billion times worse, you'll find that, like, a billion scammers, want to know your new address too - I'm not sure why?!

You would not BELIEVE the number of postcards and emails you have to send off to those people, the "legit" people and the scammers too, and it's all a bit of a slog, to put it mildly, keeping all of those guys "up to speed" - a mammoth task of humongous proportions.

flashback to yesterday: I showcase the fat "pouch"

of people - utility companies, insurance companies,

the "Inland Revenue" tax office, not to mention

a motley group of scammers, that I have to notify

of our new address - what madness!

What a crazy world we live in !!!!!! 

20:00 We go to bed on the last programme in TV gardener Monty Don's latest series on "British Gardens", the perfect "virtual aspirin" for all those house-moving "headaches" (!), and tonight he's in South West England, which, till our recent move, was mine and Lois's stamping ground for, incredibly, the last 53 years.

Memories, memories! 

And several of Monty's gardens tonight Lois and I have visited over the years, like Rousham House, Oxfordshire, which we visited with my younger sister Jill in about 1970 (?), when Lois and I were "courting" and Jill was only about 12. Also Bowood House, Wiltshire, where in 1988, I accompanied our 11-year-old  daughter Sarah to, on a Sunday School outing when Lois wasn't well. Plus, the Lost Gardens of Heligan, that Lois and I have visited more than once on our holidays in Cornwall.

flashback to 1988: I take our 11-year-old daughter Sarah

on a trip to Bowood House, Wiltshire, when Lois wasn't well

the Bowood House coaster, that I "shelled out for" in the

gift shop in 1988, and which we still use today, good condition apart from

tea-stains (not shown). Yes, last of the big spenders that's me -  haha!!!!

But tell me, friends, what do YOU think of TV's Monty Don? 

He seems mild-mannered, and he attended Malvern College as a boy, although he "hated it" apparently. 

There's a growing body of evidence accumulating, however, and there's even some in tonight's programme: evidence that some species of garden animals "just don't like him" for some reason. Could it be he maybe overdoes the Weedol in his many gardens?

When, tonight, South African-born businessman Koos Becker shows Monty the inside of a grotto he's constructed in his extensive gardens "The Newt" in Somerset, Monty gets something of a surprise, to put it mildly.

The incident happens when Koos is introducing Monty to his "wyvern", which superficially looks like a dragon, but is actually a related-but-separate species, with, typically, 2 legs, 2 wings and a pointed tail.

And if you saw the programme, did you notice the wyvern exhibiting a non-standard reaction when introduced to Monty, which is interesting.

And if there's one thing Lois and I picked up from the children's adventure stories that we read, growing up in the 1950's, was that animals, dogs and others, have a kind of a sixth sense when they encounter burglars, smugglers etc, and always react accordingly, usually growling softly, to alert their young owners to the fact that they're dealing with a "wrong'un", who's maybe hiding some dark secret or other.

Just saying! But what can TV Gardener Monty's "dark secret" be? Could HE be one of these scammers?

I wonder.... .!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!!