a fool's progress: an honest blog: 12/01/2012

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Do the Math ..

"Ectb Tobapuw" (Russian, for "Sir, Yes Sir!")

The surprise, of course, being that I have *not* been able to guess this year's birthday present a full month down the line .. the King of Gift-Guessing is dead ... and I don't know when he's coming back boo hoo.

Thanks to siblings for organising a surprise sibling break, our first shared time abroad in 20 years. No thanks, for the impossibly cryptic wild-goose guess chase I have been sent on these past 4 weeks!

I made the mistake for my 40th last year of coercing Martha to reveal my surprise party 2 months ahead of time, on the grounds that (I quote roughly) "I don't like surprises, I prefer the anticipation". And it looks like my 'bluff' has been called this year (boy you have long memories!).

So if any of the 3 other people checking this site can make head or tail of the hints (and failed guesses) below - do please get in touch - the clock is ticking - my hall of shame is nigh ... on Christmas Eve at our family Xmas gathering ... ohhhhhh the anticipation!!

Hints (issues as images,below):

1. Elephant

2. Superdrug

3. Raspberry Torte

4. Madrid

5. Boat

6. Beach

7. Chocolate

Guesses:

1. Skiing
2. Paris (Disneyland)
3. Prague
4. Amsterdam
5. Dublin
6. Athens

And the latest hint was from Tom, Hint 8:

You may need to get your calculator and a pair of compasses out, but I'd expect you should have the answer in a few minutes. There is a truly marvellous method for working it out from this clue but, as Fermat said, I won't provide it here as the margin is too narrow to contain the details.

So, here it is:

Hint #8: Your guesses so far have been, in total, more than 3500 miles, but less than 4000 miles away from the true destination.

It is as simple as that. To make it even easier, I've shared a map. I know, I know, I am toooooo kind.

Triangulate! Good Luck!

Cheers ... por nada, chu Bastardos!

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Keep your friends close ..

.. and your enemies closer, right?

Below, is a picture of the damage caused to the front bumper of my PARKED car while I was in work. Who ever bashed into it was completely dishonourable and did not come and tell me, or leave contact details.

It was parked in the small car park of the Nursing Home I work in, which has space for 5 cars max. This means someone I know must have done it. 2 of the other cars are owned by care staff who were already there when I arrived and were still there in the same place when I came out to leave and discovered the dent. That leaves two possible vehicles. One belongs to a therapy colleague I work jointly with every day who was parked on the collision side. And 'A.N. Other' who was parked to the left.

I asked her, in as non-confrontational a way as possible:

"Is there any chance at all you could have bumped my car when you left and not realised it? You'd probably have noticed it and told me, of course, but you do drive a large van so I wondered whether not noticing could have been possible?"

Cue denials. Very good ones too. Either she is telling the truth, or she is the World's greatest liar because I couldn't detect anything, ANYTHING at all in her body language, tone etc. So that's that. I have circumstantial evidence but it's my impression against her word.

Have a look at the scuff on her vehicle, and the size of alleged collision site on both vehicles, as indicated by my hands on measurement, and tell me - What you think? To claim (against) her based on these pix and have a chance at recouping the massive cost quoted by Toyota (£700-950 quid), or let it go (thereby preserving the balance in my small team of 4) and live with a damaged car ...