"illegitimum non carborundum"
Legless Blog - Ian Reed / John McMiken
Legless blog archive for August 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!
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You can email me anytime at: blog@leglessfool.com
'The Legless Blog August 2008 by The Legless Fool'
Today having waited for about eight hours for their arrival, because they could not give me a definite time, 'True' finally installed my ADSL line. I think that I must be an internet junkie now, because the withdrawal symptoms that I have gone through being unable to connect for so long has driven me crazy, even more than crazy than I normally am! So now I am back online again, like it or hate it! I now know what it must have felt like being 'excommunicated' in days of old 
.
I shall be back with a vengeance now, because I am now totally free from Parasite farm, no more looking over my shoulder, or checking my bank account and my bank finally got their act together and even compensated me for the mistake that they made before, thank you HSBC!
Cheers for now 
The legless fool back online in Bangkok
My ADSL modem arrived on Saturday 23rd August and I paid for the line, so I thought that my ADSL line would arrive quite quickly afterwards. Well, it is now four days later and still no sign of the line, so I phoned the company today to find out what was happening. I was informed that the server that was dealing with my line was not commissioned yet, but I should be connected on 29th August. So hopefully the next post that I put on this blog should be uploaded through my new high speed connection and I can get back into my internet routines again.
Cheers for now
The legless fool still waiting in Bangkok
I went to HSBC Bangkok today hoping that I could sort out this ridiculous situation that my bank has now put me in. The staff in HSBC Bangkok were very helpful, they couldn't give me the reason why my bank had blocked or cancelled my card, but at least they informed me that they could get me some money. I asked for enough cash from my account to cover my impending ADSL installation and hopefully enough to last me through until my new ATM card arrives. I was informed by the bank in Bangkok that the cost of the international money transfer was $20 US, so I have to pay for my bank's stupid mistake too! After I received my money, I connected to my bank in UK on the internet and complained again about what they had done and what I had to do to try to correct their stupid mistake and I also stated that their bank department that caused this whole mess, should cover the cost of my money transfer. Personally I doubt it, that would be much too logical for them and they would have to admit to bad practice and it would even cost them money in the process!
Well, we shall just have to wait and see now if they have any scruples.
Cheers for now
The legless fool back in pocket in Bangkok
I thought that by informing my bank yesterday about the mistake that they had made by blocking my current ATM card, that they would quickly make amends. Well, I was obviously wrong again! Today I went to an ATM machine to see if my bank had corrected their mistake and this time, the ATM machine informed me: 'Card retained, please contact your bank' and swallowed my card. So now I have no money and also now, I have no card to get any money from my account. Is this all automatic, does nobody monitor this? So now my only option is to go to the local bank branch in Bangkok tomorrow, if I have enough money to go there, and sort out this problem, hopefully 
.
Cheers for now
The legless fool broke in Bangkok
I was quite obviously now, much too quick in accepting that my bank had acted correctly by placing a temporary stop on my new ATM/debit card, I was accepting that they had done something correctly for once. Yesterday I went to my local supermarket to top up on my essentials, beer, food, etc. . There are a few ATM machines near the supermarket, so I thought that I should top-up my cash and keep enough money in my wallet to cover the installation of my new ADSL line when it arrives this week. At the first ATM machine that I went to, it came back with an error message of 'Unable to complete this transaction at this time'and at the second machine I received the same error message, but at the third machine it stated that 'This card has been blocked by the bank, please contact your bank for details', so it looks like my stupid bank has not only blocked usage of my new ATM card, but they have also managed to cut off all access to my funds from anywhere.
Why am I not surprised at this stupid development? Because the idiots in my bank have done this to me before, to read the story of what happened before, please click on ths line.
Cheers for now
The legless fool in BKK without access to his funds
I know that this blog recently has been increasing to an unmanageable size, I have had just too many other things to do with my recent move to Bangkok, but today for the first time since my move, I realised that I should start taking care of it and start to get back into a good routine again. I am well settled into my new accommodation here now and I am enjoying being alone and just having to worry about myself and taking care of my funds by myself, I can budget again now. I received a reply from my bank yesterday telling me that a temporary stop has been placed on my new ATM/debit card, so that is another problem taken care of, things are coming together relatively well now. Hopefully my new ADSL line will be installed soon too, so that I don't have to keep going to the internet cafe to post these blogs.
Cheers for now
The legless fool in BKK getting organised
I contacted True Telecoms in Bangkok yesterday and explained to them that I needed an internet connection in my new room, they told me that they would pass my request on to their sales department and that they would contact me. Well, no contact from them all day yesterday, but first thing this morning I received a phone call from a True sales representative requesting details from me and within five minutes they confirmed that a new 512MHz ADSL line will be installed in my room within the next week, so I am now gradually getting organised again. 
Now I just hope that my bank can sort out the mess that they have put me in, without it costing me a lot of money.
Cheers for now
The legless fool in BKK trying to get organised
I have been ill for a few days with a very severe throat and chest infection, so I just stayed in bed in my new room in BKK and took some antibiotics that I always keep around for this purpose. Yesterday for the first time in a few days, I felt well enough to go to the internet cafe and post my blog. I had many other things to check on the internet, not least of which, was to check that my bank had received my message that I sent to them one week ago explaining about my change of address to make sure that my new ATM card which is now due, is sent to my new address and not the old one where the parasites are. Well, I received a reply from the bank yesterday, telling me that my new ATM card has been sent to my old address, great! Just when I thought that I was actually clear of the parasites at last, the bank has now sent them my new ATM card and really thinking that I was finally clear, I have even moved some of the money from my lottery account back into my bank account so that I can have access to it myself now.
Do you ever have the feeling that things are completely stacked up against you?
Cheers for now
The legless fool in BKK with more problems
I travelled by train to Bangkok on 6 August and found my way to my new apartment block, the staff were expecting me and I was shown straight to my room. The room was definitely different to the norm, all of the other rooms on the ground floor at the front are shops and cafes, mine was obviously used as some kind of outlet before, because there is Thai writing across the glass sliding doors and even prices in Thai baht for something, but I am not quite sure what. My room is quite compact and the large double bed takes up about fifty percent of it, but for me it is just about the right size, I don't have to move about a lot when I am writing and I am alone now anyway. I had only brought enough clothes with me for two or three days, because my plan was just to establish myself at the new residence and then arrange for a car rental so that I could go back and pick up the rest of my belongings and most importantly for me, my computer.
So on the 9th of August that is just what I did, the only automatic vehicle that they had available at the car rental was a Toyota Soluna VIOS, which they gave me a good price on because I have been a good customer with them for years. I set off for the farm at about 12:30 pm from Bangkok, I know that it is only a two or three hours drive and I arrived at the farm at 15:00 pm. I received a phone call whilst I was driving and the people at the farm knew that I was going to pick up all of my things that I could possibly fit in the car. On my arrival at the farm, before I started packing the car, I had to check my email, I hadn't done so for a couple of days because the internet cafe near where I am now staying is quite expensive, so I spent the next hour just going through my email. Whilst I was doing this, the people there started loading the car for me, so by the time I had finished with the email, all that remained to be loaded was my computer equipment. The one thing that I couldn't put in the car that I needed, was the table to put my computer on, because in my new room there aren't any tables at all. The table was much too big though even when dismantled, so I thought that it would not be too big a problem for me, I would just try and get a table at the apartment block and if there were any problems with it, I could always put the computer on one side of the huge bed that I now have.
The drive back later that day to Bangkok was much longer, for some reason there were traffic jams around Ayuthaya and Rangsit, so I only eventually got back to my apartment at 22:00 that night. The security and other staff at the apartment were very helpful and they soon unloaded the car for me. My room though was full of bags, boxes and computer equipment and it took me a good hour just to arrange everything so that I could move around the room easily, the real unpacking would just have to wait until the next day, because I needed a couple of beers and I also needed to get my head down to sleep before I even considered unpacking after that drive. The next day I had to take the car back to the car rental shop before I did anything else though and I had a big lunch in my favourite pub in Bangkok, the Ship Inn whilst I was near there and it was very good, even though it was already lunchtime by then, I ordered the English breakfast in there and it was excellent and really filled me up, I was so full that I couldn't even drink all of my beer afterwards. When I eventually got back to my apartment a few hours later, I saw the owner there and asked her if she had a small table that I could put in my room to place my computer on and she quite quickly found me one. So the first priority for me before any other unpacking was to get my computer back together again and get connected to the internet. I got everything physically connected quite quickly and I thought that the roaming internet connection number of '1222' would still connect okay in Bangkok, but it kept coming up with an error message that the line was busy, I tried it again and again, with the same result, so then I dialled the same number on my phone in the room and I got a message saying that this number was not valid, so I thought that it must be different for Bangkok.
I eventually found a number for internet connection in Bangkok in one of my bags of computer things and I changed the number for the modem to dial, then I got an error message telling me that the modem was either busy or not connected, so I tried this again many times and got the same result, I then shut my computer down thinking that it had got itself into some kind of loop, but when I booted it up again, it said that there was no modem. I then reseated the modem in the PCI slot and my computer still wouldn't see it, so I then changed PCI slots and again it wouldn't see it. I thought then that there must be a problem with my modem, so I would just have to go to the internet cafe and check my email there. But when I went outside it was now 8 pm at night and it was pouring down with rain, there were no motorcycle taxis around and the nearest internet cafe to me now is more than one kilometre away. So I just went back to my room again messed about with the modem PCI slots again, but it looks like the modem is now completely dead, maybe with all of the rain, the phone line got hit by lightning somewhere, but I didn't hear anything this time. I am writing this offline now so that I can hopefully upload it to my blog tomorrow using the FTP on my flash drive and then people will know why there hasn't been a post on here for a while, but I don't know what I am going to do with my own internet connection now, I shall just have to work on it.
Cheers for now
The legless fool trying to connect in BKK
Well this is it! My last night surrounded by parasites on this farm, hopefully. I have to wake up early tomorrow morning and get the first train to Bangkok from Ban Takhli, so maybe I have to drink a lot of beer and whisky very quickly tonight to try to get to sleep early, it is just a concession that I have to make to be sure that I get away on time tomorrow. 
I may spend a couple of days relaxing in my new room in Bangkok before I hire a car and come back here to pick up my computer, so there may not be any posts on here for a few days. For eight months now I have waited for this opportunity to present itself and all I needed to make it happen was someone in Bangkok to help me to get a room and it is quite strange that I could only find that person in Vientiane, Laos. Life is very complicated sometimes! Living in Bangkok without the constant worries about where my funds are disappearing to, I can probably settle down again and finish my second book 'Ex Post Facto'. One of the ironies here is that, that was one of my reasons for moving to the farm in the first place and the other irony here, is that my other main reason for moving to the farm, was to save money. 
Hopefully, I have made a good decision this time with this move, and if I haven't, I shall tell you all about it on here later anyway. The life of the legless fool in Thailand continues!
Cheers for now
The legless fool starting life anew in BKK
I have spent more than two years building up a high profile for my writing name on the internet / web for the sole purpose of promoting my books and stories and it is working quite well now. As I have said before on here though, because my name and book is high profile on the search engines now, many other people are using both on their own website page titles, descriptions, content and meta tags for their own search engine ranking purposes and to try to get traffic to their sites from my name and my book title. I personally find this quite pathetic, you have to feel sorry for people that don't have the brains or ideas to promote their own name and products for their sites. Do a search yourself on any of the search engines for John McMiken and you will see what I mean, the only legitimate ones on the results pages, apart from my own websites and blogs, are directories, publishers, writers/authors websites, forums, Scottish district registries of births, deaths and marriages and the one web directory that I personally endorse is http://www.mexabet.biz, all of the others listed in the search engine results pages (SERPs) for my writing name are just part of the pathetic group of website owners / webmasters that I was talking about above.
The good thing about all of this, is that it proves to me that my campaign to promote my name and book is working well now, otherwise people would not try to copy them.
Cheers for now
John McMiken - The legless fool
I have now reserved my room in Bangkok with the help of my new friend there. I shall be travelling to Bnagkok on Wednesday this week to pay my deposit, collect my keys and spend my first night in my new home. A couple of rooms were available, but being legless and for ease of access for me, I chose the ground floor room that was available. I am really looking forward to living there and having the freedom to do what I want to, when I want to and not having to think about anybody else, just living alone taking care of myself and more importantly, taking control of my own money again (no parasites).
I shall heve to return to the farm on Thursday or Friday to pick up my computer and other important things, so for a couple of days this week there will be no posts on here and no updates to my websites until I get everything settled in my new home. As I said on here before, I just needed someone in Bangkok to help me to secure a new place and as it turned out, the person that has helped me, is someone that I met in Vientiane of all places. If you haven't already read about my last trip to Laos yet, then you can click on this line and go to read about my trip Legless in Vientiane, Laos II . My new friend in Bangkok that helped me with this is a website developer himself and he has just completed his latest project and uploaded it to the web, he has designed a new web directory for people to list their websites under a very comprehensive categorisation listing and it is very professionally done. Why not check out this new, professional, human edited web directory by clicking anywhere on this highlighted line.
Cheers for now
The legless fool on the move
I am sitting at my computer this evening / morning and it is my birthday I think. I was born on the 1st of August, 1951 in UK and although here in Thailand it is now 1st August, in UK it is still 31st July at this point in time. I received one present early this year, yesterday evening I was given a bottle of whisky for a birthday present, I only usually drink whisky at Xmas, but to show gratitude for the thought, I had a drink of my only present last night, it was still not officially my birthday, but what the hell! Well it certainly started my year off well, because the next thing that I knew, I woke up in my computer chair at 03:00 am this morning and realising that it really was my birthday now, here in Thailand, I decided to have a few more shots of my only present this year. If I seem to be drivelling on a little here, you can blame my birthday present for that, it does become a little addictive once you start. I hope this year is a better one for me, I don't think that it could be worse than previous ones, but then again, I have thought that many times before and I have been proven wrong every time. Some good news, my new friend in Bangkok has found accommodation for me there, so I shall be going to check that out sometime next week, that would be a good start to the year for me.
This whisky is quite nice, but a little too strong for my taste, I have to keep watering it down a lot with beer or maybe I would get drunkkkk . Well it is now 04:30 am here and it is still not really my official birthday in UK, so even though I am now starting to get tired again, I shall just have to try and stay awake so that I can celebrate my real birthday at the real time. The problem with drinking that I have, is that as soon as I stop drinnking I fall asleep, so to be able to stay awake, I have to keep drinking, well that is my excuse and I am sticking to it and drinking to it.
I think that I should finish thiss posst now because the keyboard is becomming blurrred and for somme reasson it seemms to bbe moving now, musst bee magic.
Cheeers for now
The legless fool another year older
To my blog Archive for July 2008
For my Current Blog click here!
To my Legless Fool 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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