"illegitimum non carborundum"
Legless Blog - Ian Reed / John McMiken
Legless blog archive for July 2008
For my current Blog click here!
British expat amputee in Thailand
'Let it be'
Legless Blog -I first decided to create this blog page after seeing all of the bad publicity given to and constant hounding of my fellow legless celebrity, Heather Mills on many other websites and in the media in general. This page I created as a place where I can state my personal opinions, thoughts and musings openly, and just share my views and feelings with the Internet World.
This is my legless website, I pay for it and I am the manager, owner/boss/ruler of it, so 'legless or not', as 'freedom of speech' is still a basic human right in true democratic countries where you can view this blog, then I feel that this is somewhere that I can speak my mind without recourse. This is not a commercial page, it is just my own social media page. Nobody has forced any of you to come here and nobody is holding you here, so if you don't agree or like what you are reading here, then please feel free to leave at anytime!
As someone who has exactly the same physical injuries that I have, I find that the hounding of Heather Mills by the media is disgusting. I now see how celebrities, legless or not, can never have a normal life, because they never have time to themselves without someone from the media trying to drag up any kind of dirt from what would just be a normal everyday incident to anyone else, but in Heather's case any normal incident gets sensationalised by the media. Heather's physical disability seems to incite them more, and being honest, if I personally was hounded the way that Heather is, then some of these media personnel would consider being only 'legless' a bonus after the physical injuries that I would personally inflict upon them. I am thoroughly disgusted at the treatment of Heather, I suppose you could call it a feeling of 'Legless unity', so if any of the media responsible are reading this blog, then in Paul McCartney's own words "Let it be". Listen to the music.
We are both legless!
****
You can email me anytime at: blog@leglessfool.com
'The Legless Blog July 2008 by The Legless Fool'
Two days ago, I let my feelings be known to the parasites on the farm that I wanted to leave here and that I needed to live alone. I have had it now living with other people here, everyone that I live with seems to have the same idea, they never look at me as a person, all they see in me is a means to add to their own monetary income without working for it. At least the air is cleared here now, but the main problem that I have now is finding somewhere else to live, I would like to move back to Bangkok again, but first I need to find some suitable accommodation there, just a room with a bed and a telephone line is all that I really require, nothing special really. Preferably somewhere there that is not too expensive, because after living with the parasites for the last fifteen months my savings are now zero.
For me to find a room in Bangkok from Parasite farm here in Nakhon Sawan is very difficult, I really need the help of someone in Bangkok to do this. I have sent an email to someone that I met in Vientiane last week and hopefully he can help me with this. I just need to take control of my own life again now and much more importantly, take control of my own money again. I just hope that I can move from here within the next two weeks before my pension is paid into my bank account again and the parasites try to gain access to it again.
Cheers for now 
The legless fool looking for a new home
I finally finished my Legless in Laos trip II story and uploaded it today. It took a long time to write because there was a lot more to talk about this time, than the last trip I made to Laos. Being alone this time I had a better time there, I met some new friends and I drank a lot more beer too. I wish I had a digital camera that would have been useful to add some photos to the story but I can't afford to buy one at the moment. So if you would like to read about my trip then just click on Legless in Vientiane Laos II here and you should be transferred to it.
I am gradually getting back into my routine again now after my trip and I need to concentrate on my SEO work again now because some of the major search engines have changed their algorithms again. The next time I have to go for a visa trip is on 20th September and I shall be heading back to Penang again and back to the gang at the Blue Diamond Hotel there. I bought a bottle of wine in Laos this time, I really like wine more than beer, but it is just too expensive for me to buy wine in Thailand. The reason that I bought the wine this time, is because it is my birthday on Friday of this week, so I thought that I would treat myself. 
Cheers for now
The legless fool is 57 years old this week
I arrived back from my Laos trip yesterday, but I was a little too tired to write on here then. I was going to write about my recent trip, but there are too many things to talk about and much too much for just a blog post, so I have spent most of today creating a new page for my websites about my trip and time in Vientiane. It still isn't finished yet, so I thought that I should write something on here anyway tonight.
The trip was quite a good trip and much more enjoyable travelling there alone this time. I met some quite interesting people in Vientiane and made some new friends on this trip. When I have finished the page about it I shall put a post with a link on here for anyone to go and read about my latest legless venture into Laos and I did get a little more legless in a drunken sense too this time, lots of Beer Lao. 
Cheers for now
The legless fool back from Laos
I logged onto my bank account this evening and I was surprised to see that my missing funds had been returned to my account again. There was also a new message for me telling me that the relevant department was dealing with my case as a matter of urgency and they apologised for any inconvenience caused. Well, at least I have my money back now, that is the important thing to me at this point in time, I am still not happy with what they did or the way that they did it, but their customer support department does seem to work.
I shall be away in Laos again for the next five days, I shall try and write on here if I get the chance there, but if not, I shall definitely give you a report about my trip just as soon as I return.
Cheers for now
The legless fool heading to Laos
Two days ago I was sent an email from the customer service department of my bank, telling me that they were investigating my complaint and that they would get back to me when they had any results. Well, that was the last time I heard from them, I still have to go to Laos tomorrow and without my funds that they saw fit to remove without notifying me, I am now having to borrow money just to make this trip. I know that what they did is completely illegal in the UK, but I am not in the UK at the moment or I would be straight around to the nearest police station. They cannot just leave you without any funds to take care of yourself, especially when the funds that they 'stole' belong to me anyway.
They stated that this money was paid to a collection service for my outstanding credit card debt, well, the credit card debt is with the bank themselves, so this looks like a set up job for them, to get money off me and using someone else as an excuse, but removing almost all of my money without my knowledge cannot be excused anyway. Yes, my credit card debt has not been paid off and the reason for this is because this stupid bank closed down my bank account, again without my knowledge and this was the account that was paying my credit card off, so they did this to themselves four years ago. If you would like to read the story about why that account was shut down then you can read it at:
http://www.leglessfool.com/expostfacto/shortstories/Bankfraud.html
Cheers for now
The legless fool still hopping mad with His Stupid Bank Clots
I am getting ready to travel again next weekend because it is time for me to renew my Thai visa again. I went to Penang last time, so I have to go to Vientiane again this time, so I decided to check that I had sufficient funds in my bank account yesterday evening, but when I logged into my online bank account I got a shock, my account was down almost £200 less than I expected and not enough money left in it for me to go on my visa trip. When I checked the online statement page there had been a debit of £190 with just the word 'ADVISED' next to it, so I sent an online e-message to my bank asking them what this debit was for and I received the message below back from them today:
To: Ian
Subject: Case: 7096473 General Enquiries
Date: 14 Jul 2008
Account details: 40-40-07 91691201
Message: Our Reference 7096473
Dear Mr Reed
Debit Transaction
Thank you for your e-message received 13 July 2008
I notice that a letter has been sent in relation to this will reach you within a few working days.
Please be advised that the funds have been transferred from your account 404007 91691201 to your credit card debt 5434604053662809 currently with Metropolitan Collection Services Limited.
Should you have any further enquiries do not hesitate to contact us directly.
Kind regards
Jason R
HSBC Internet Banking Customer Support
This could not have come at a worse time for me because without these funds I cannot travel for my visa and I am really mad with them, so I replied:
Dear Jason R.,
I would appreciate it if people tell me about these things before they just do them. This has now put me in a very difficult situation, I have to leave the country this week due to immigration regulations, but without the money that you transferred, without notifying me, I cannot go and I now will have problems with immigration and be subjected to a fine of £9 per day for overstay, which I also now cannot pay, so I may end up in jail just through an HSBC stupid action.
I shall be taking this up with the UK financial ombudsman now.
I shall also put all of this story on my internet website blogs and my local UK newspaper blog tonight too, to show how stupid and insensitive HSBC is. Remember, I am an amputee and an invalid, so it is definitely not going to make your bank look very good and I may also contact the UK media about this too.
Best regards
Ian ReedI don't know if it will do any good and they have not replied yet, but I enjoyed getting it off my chest with them after their stupid action, surely they are not allowed to just take a large sum like that out of your bank account without informing you first. I have sent an email to the UK financial ombudsman about this already, so I shall just have to wait and see what develops now.
Cheers for now
The legless fool hopping mad with His Stupid Bank Clots
I am literally legless and I do like drinking beer and I mention about both of these things on my websites. The search engines have picked up on this and my websites come up on the first results page for the keywords 'legless' and 'beer', this must really be causing some other sites problems, because when I check these words with the search engines, I have found that there are sites like 'Legless brewery' and a new beer in the UK called 'Legless beer' and these are behind me in the search engine results page (SERP) I find it quite amusing, but I think that these other beer websites may be a little upset with me.
My new legless icon, I have now given the name of 'Solo', I think that this is quite a good name for him as he is representing me on the web now alone. 
Cheers for now
The legless fool and his web rep Solo
I haven't written about it on here for a long time, but I still have Ramsay Hunt Syndrome (RHS). It came on very quickly, but it takes a very long time to recover, I have had it for five months now and although some of the symptoms are improving, I still cannot wink with my right eye, but I can close it now. The right side of my mouth is still a problem, I can't control my lips on the right side still and it is a nuisance, when I am hungry and eating quickly if I am not careful, I bite my lip on the right side and it hurts, I have done this many times now. 
I have learned how to drink my beer without spilling it now though and that is much more important to me, food is just a basic necessity, but beer is a must! 
I did read on the internet a while ago, that you know when the RHS symptoms have finished when you can whistle again, well I practice whistling everyday and still no sound yet, I still can't get my lips quite right.
Cheers for now
The legless fool wetting his whistle
I thought that now that I am 'the legless fool' that I should design an icon, avatar or logo that people can relate to. That is why I have not posted on here for a while, I have been busy designing this and applying it to many of my websites pages. There are so many pages now though, that it will take me quite a long time to find them all and put the icon on all of them,s. It gets a little confusing at times too, because I have the same pages on my reedinter and ex post facto websites that I have on my legless HQ website now, just the wording and links are different, so sometimes I think that I have done a page already and then I realise that I have done it, but on a different website, so it has to be done again.
If you noticed already, the icon is at the top of this page now, but for those of who missed it I shall duplicate it here:
It is not a brilliant design, but the most important things are on there, a fool's hat, one leg missing and a beer in each hand and apart from the hat and being green, it really could be me .
Cheers for now
The legless fool in colour
I was working on one of my webpages yesterday that explains about how I built up my internet domains when I suddenly realised, that now I am using Legless Fool as my internet / web name, I should really back it up with a domain of a similar name to stop anyone else trying to cash in on this name as they already are doing with the name of my book 'Legless in Thailand' and my writing name 'John McMiken'. So I made the decision to register the domain name of www.leglessfool.com yesterday, which I did successfully, to protect myself against someone else registering it. As this new domain just appertains to me personally as the owner of this name now, I have only configured this new domain to redirect people to my Legless group of websites, because I cannot justify the expense of putting this new domain on a server and building a new website for it at this time, maybe later! I own many domain names now and many of them are used just to redirect traffic to my existing websites. I have written a page on my legless HQ website explaining about all of this, so I shall not write too much about it on this post today, for anyone that is interested, then you can take a look at my Legless Websites Group of Domains page.
Cheers for now
The legless fool registered on the web
Now I am writing a lot, I find that I have to be in the 'right frame of mind' to write easily. Being an electronics/computer engineer for the last forty years, frame of mind did not come into the equation at all, I had a problem to solve and my mind just automatically switched into fault-finding mode, irrespective of my frame of mind. But, writing I find is completely different, I have to be in the right mood to sit down, think about the topic that I want to write about and absolutely nothing else and only then do the words start to flow through my mind. It is not an automatic thing like it was being an engineer, I find that I have to have no outside influences or distractions whatsoever when I sit down to write and my mind has to be completely clear of all other issues, which in my present situation is not very easy .
I am writing about this tonight because, over the last two days I have not been able to write my usual input for my Asian Diaries and I have been trying to analyse myself and understand, why sometimes I find that it is much easier to write than other times? Even with this blog it is the same, you can see that there has been no post on here for a couple of days now and it is not because I have had many other things to do, it is only to do with being in the right frame of mind for it.
Well, my mind is growing tired now and the frame is collapsing, so I think that I should end this post now .
Cheers for now
The legless fool losing (lost) his mind in Thailand
It started raining very late tonight, just a constant drizzle really but also with the occasional flash of lightning, so I had to disconnect the phone line from my modem to protect against any lightning strike hitting it again. The rain does bring out a few insects and they are attracted to the lights in my outdoor working area/bedroom. The insects in turn attracted two bats tonight and they have been flying around me for about thirty minutes now, don't bats ever get tired and stop for a rest? The bats are okay though because they keep the insects down, but they do get a little close at times when I am working and it is a little distracting when they fly between me and my monitor. I shall be glad when I can get an office/bedroom indoors again, I do like the outdoors, but in heavy rain it can get a little wet when the wind is blowing strong and sometimes the flying termites come out after the rain has stopped and they are an absolute nuisance because they arrive by the hundreds at a time, I much prefer the bats, at least they dont drop in your beer .
Cheers for now
The legless fool and the bats in Thailand
To my blog Archive for June 2008
For my Current Blog click here!
To my Legless Headquarters site
P.S. "I don't remember reading the small print when I signed on for this life, in fact, I don't remember signing on at all, I was probably legless then too! So seeing as you wont let me resign, can we renegotiate the contract please?"
My first published book - Legless in Thailand
My other blog at the St Helens Star newpaper, UK
My home town St Helens, UK and their famous rugby team
Some of my short stories HERE
Biography of author John McMiken
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