The view from my window

The view from my window
The view from my window

Monday 20 December 2021

Time to change jobs?

I got an email this morning from the Direction Nationale de la Gendarmerie in Paris because apparently I'd been "caught looking at child pornography" on my computer. They kindly gave me 72 hours to respond to their email with all justification as to why they shouldn't go ahead and prosecute me! I guess it makes a change from the widow of the former Director of Finances at the World Bank in Ouagadougou who wants to put $10 million in my bank account right? I know I shouldn't, but more and more I write back to these jerks and tell them exactly where they can shove a cactus - and then I block them! I guess it might get me into trouble one day if I fire that off to the wrong person, but since I've never looked at child pornography I'd guess I'm pretty safe on this one! Which reminds me of my brief foray into online dating in 2010 after my husband left (and yay me, I'll be divorced 10 years next week)! As a woman of a certain age you do tend to get some guy who looks like a gorilla sending you his picture with the caption "I'm just what you need"! I guess they think all divorced women over the age of 50 are just gagging for it, right, and while it never happened to me I knew of other women who received unsollicited dick pics. An Irish friend of mine replied to one such gem with "that looks like a penis, only smaller", but I did see a text message which I thought was pretty good and saved just in case - although thankfully that never happened to me! Still, if it could get rid of World Bank widows and accusations of looking at child pornography I'm up for most things!


Oh and I meant to write about the North Shropshire by-election last week but somehow it slipped my mind. Wow and just wow! The Tories (Conservatives) have held the North Shropshire seat for almost 200 years so I guess you could say it was considered a safe Tory seat - until now! It came up for grabs when Bojo's crony, Owen Paterson, had to step down in a cash-for-influence scandal and I guess the Tories were so confident it was a safe seat that they ran a candidate who wasn't even from the local area and didn't know anything about it. So the seat went to the Liberal Democrats with a fairly convincing majority - and the Conservatives are running pretty scared, what with all Johnson's screw-ups in the last few weeks/months/forevers! Not that I think it will make much of a difference in the long run because there seems to be no front-runner candidate to replace Johnson - and no real opposition from either the Labour Party or the Lib Dems! God helps us, but it's the same thing here in France. Macron has not, as yet, declared as a candidate for next year's Presidential election and yet the other night he was on TV for over two hours patting himself on the back so hard for all his "achievements" he almost dislocated his shoulder - a move that pissed off the declared candidates because as a candidate they are all bound to have an equal amount of air time - and yet Macron, as an as yet non-candidate, is getting to use the airwaves as long as he wants! The elections will take place in spring but I have no real hope that we will get rid of him. I think it will be either him or his female clone, Valérie Pecresse, that will get in because they've got the big money behind them. It's sad as there are other candidates (and I know who I would vote for if I only had a vote - which I don't), but I suspect they won't be able to counter the deep pockets of Macron's backers! It's just awful to think we might be looking at another five years of more of the same - or even worse!

And finally, I met André at Ford this afternoon as he was dropping off his car to get winter tyres put on. When we got back to the house he told me that he'd just learned that yet another colleague had dropped dead last week of a sudden heart attack!!!!! Wow, if people were unsettled before I can only begin to imagine how they are feeling right now! Time to look for another job maybe?

18 comments:

  1. I am so sorry for Andre's colleagues and their families. o time to prepare when it is so sudden. I may be locked up for drug smuggling-at least that's what the guy on the end of my phone call said the other day. We can maybe share a cell together.

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    1. Ewwwww, you get them on the phone??? I deliberately got a house phone with an answering machine and the calls are coming in thick and fast at the moment. I let it go to answering machine and of course they never leave a message. Oh and I think there are clinics that can help you overcome your drug smuggling habit but I'd be happy to share a cell!

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  2. I usually just delete and block, though nothing seems to stop them. I do worry about older people because they get spam calls threatening their Social Security. The idea that there are people who see everyone as 'fair game' irks the hell out of me.

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    1. I used to just delete but I guess I'm bored so now I tend to engage (see my previous post about the Words With Friends guys who I'm certain were going to fall madly in love with me by round six)! But I agree with you, for me it's just a laugh - for someone older and/or who is maybe not that with it (could be me any time, of course), they are evil bastards!

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    2. I enjoy having a little fun occasionally, but only on incoming phone calls, (afraid of allowing a Trojan to come in if I open up an email). But I’m still working on getting my car warranty on a 1995 Dodge Neon car!! And I had a nice conversation with a heavily accented man about not being a real man with a real job with lots of f words going back and forth, I felt good getting that off my chest, my kids are nurses (and myself) and farmers that actually work and contribute to the world instead of scum sucking … was some of the conversation ha! I’m sure they don’t care ha!

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    3. The ones that refer to you as "dearest" are a dead giveaway aren't they. I mean, I don't know anyone who uses that word. Good for you for unloading on that guy, but then you're probably right - they don't care!

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  3. Well I've had a few princes looking to give me money and a few looking for me to give them money but I've never been accused of looking at porn! I'm glad you mentioned it as I'd have got a shock if I got that one, not that I ever have looked at any porn, but still....!
    Have you seen the sketch Joe Lycett did on replying to scams online? You might be able to find it on YouTube, it's hilarious and I aspire to do this if ever I get another one!
    Wow, no wonder you're feeling Andre should change jobs, that's scary stuff, especially when they are so young. People don't realise how badly stress can affect you. Take care! x

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    1. I'd never been accused of looking at child porn before either so it's a first for me. But I will look up Joe Lycett's sketch (I quite like him anyway)! As for André, it's a shocker. I was just thinking, in over 30 years in my job I can only think of three sudden deaths of colleagues (two heart attacks and one road traffic accident), so two in five weeks is pushing it and very worrying!

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  4. My kids and I were just talking about how many seemingly extremely intelligent and coherent and knowledgeable older people fall for scams. The scammy emails I've been getting lately are the ones supposedly from Amazon informing me of thousands of dollars of charges which of course are bogus. I just delete them but I can see how people would freak out. At least I do have an account with them and the emails appear to be authentic.
    And yet, they are not.
    My favorite email scams are the ones that start out "Dearest" because you know right away that this is not for real and yet somehow, I still like being called that.

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    1. I got a "Dearest" email just this morning. Apparently she's dying and wants to help me financially!

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  5. I'm of the "If I don't know you and I never asked for info then how did you get my number" group and I ignore and block.

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    1. I have an answering machine on my house phone so I always let that go to answering machine unless I know the caller. It's hotting up right now as I'm getting several calls a day but they never leave a message. There's no point blocking them because they are usually computer-generated calls and each call centre has multiple numbers. Regarding the emails, I guess I'm bored because I often respond and tell them where to shove it - and then block - but isn't it sad that some people fall for it and then get sucked down that rabbit hole of sending money to these jerks! Jim Browning (which I reckon is an alias) is absolutely brilliant at tracking these scammers down!

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  6. I've had a bad run of scam e-mails recently where it took ages to train my e-mail provider to recognise them and spam them automatically. So long as they refer to banks/products/activities I have no connection with, are mis-spelled (Amazoan)or just plain ridiculous (please come launder money with me) they are easy to spot and in the case of anything else suspicious I always check the sender's email address which is invariably hilarious. Sometimes I think they drop such big hints to demonstrate their lack of legitimacy that they are essentially telling themselves that if anybody falls for this they are fair game. I live in fear of the day when I just might be!

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    1. I think we will be just fine but imagine the day when/if we are more fragile mentally and these b***ds try again. It's scary indeed!

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  7. My employer sends regular test Phishing emails and I was proud not to fall for the first large number of them but I have failed a few lately "You just failed on a phishing test"
    They get smarter all the time about how they catch people and it would seem that I am behind, not ahead of the game. Oh well, the point of the emails is to educate me and they are working.

    The firstt hing I thinkof with a sudden heart attack these days is "Was it covid?"

    have a wonderful Christmas!!

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    1. Your employer is wise indeed. Who would have thought of that. As for sudden heart attacks, my first thought is "did they get the jab". Of the four that I know of in the last six months 3 definitely had the jab and the fourth, I don't know. We had another one yesterday, a 20 year old out skiing near here who died of a "sudden cardiac event". He had to have been jabbed or he would not be allowed to use the ski lifts! God help us!

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  8. Goodness. I'm so far behind on everything! I'm glad to hear you're recovering from Covid, though. It's certainly continuing to make the rounds. Yikes! I now wonder if my burgeoning cold symptoms are Omicron symptoms, but can still taste and smell perfectly well, so thinking it's unlikely. But still you wonder...

    I got caught with a couple of phishing emails recently (emails to a website I *could* have signed up for way back in the mists of time), and I've been getting a staggering number of spam emails of all kinds ever since. It's fortunately not found its way into my actual email box, but it's flipping annoying. Honestly. I tried blocking, but I need to work during the day so don't have an extra 8 hours to spare for that... :/

    Have a lovely Christmas & hope you continue to feel better xx

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    1. All of us who got covid were sick for about 4-5 days although the fatigue lasted for 3-4 weeks. And the loss of appetite and smell too, but then that's not the end of the world as far as I'm concerned. I'd bought in a whole bunch of stuff beforehand "just in case" (NAC is apparently highly recommended and at least here in France you can buy it from Amazon) so who knows if that helped or not but we really weren't ill. We self-isolated for the required 10 days and that was it. I'm sure you'll be fine. Fingers crossed, and merry Christmas and I hope 2022 is kinder to all of us!

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