A Noble Art, Mort.  One of my grandfathers was a conductor in Bethnal Green!! 

aaaaaaaaaaaah. LAAAME day at work today.

Quality checks have finally been instated today (boss checking back over a sample of my entries himself), which is reasonable enough given the size of the project.  But I get the feeling that he's a bit pissed with me (especially because, if one was to believe the data straight off, it indicates that somebody did something that isn't too naughty really but that he though out of character for this person).  And so I ended up feeling really defensive today...I didn't *act* defensively, I accepted everything.  But yeah, it seems my honeymoon period is over (up until now, everyone thought I was, more or less, great.  One added effect of these inaccuracies is that they nullify any previous pride I derived from the speed at which I was getting through stuff). 

BLAH>

I know what you mean.  It was poor little Madeleine McCann for months.  Very depressing.  Never any nice good news......

P.S.  I'm still reeling after reading that Shannon Matthews' mum is pregnant again.  That will make 8 I think.  Apparently they're on to her for thousands of pounds of benefit fraud as well.  The article said that she may never have been found out had there not been the big investigation about Shannon.  All the same, with 7/8 children I wouldn't have thought there'd be any need to defraud the system - the DSS benefits must be a bit hefty anyway.  I'm not sure how they'd do it unless they do paid work as well - but how could you manage that with all those children?  It's all a bit baffling.

If you believe the redtops she is now the "most hated woman in Britain" (feckless pregnancies, child neglect, benefit fraud, perveting course of Justice etc) and will now have to have £100,000 worth  tax payers' money spent on plastic surgery ops to change her appearance to avoid being lynched when she is released.   

Yeah, our annual Scottish trip usually means a few in the wallet coming back, I don't think there's a pound note now, Ron will correct me if I'm wrong. Post Offices are usually good at accepting them though our Asian post office manager was slightly grumpy, he waits till he's got £100 before cashing them.

We have loads of Scottish bank notes in this area.  So many holidaymakers come from Scotland that all the shops, banks, pubs, restaurants et al, have no problem at all with them.  We very often get them in change.

There are still Scottie oncers about, but there are no more being issued. Most of the notes have recently been redesigned, so since there are three issuing banks (Royal Bank, Bank of Scotland and Clydesdale) and three, four or five denominations, there are plenty of variations that machines must be set to read. As George points out, although they're sterling, they're not legal tender here, but try telling even most born and bred Scots that and you'll hear some very choice language, often highly inflected with gutturals. On the other hand, I can go for weeks with seeing a single English note, so you can understand where the misconception arises. 

Even now, Blackpool is the most common destination for Scottish holiday makers, and very much more than once I've travelled South on a train packed to overflowing with holiday makers, many of whom will have been on the juice since first thing in the morning. To be avoided at all costs. One of the banks in the area is still the clearing bank for Scottish currency south of the border, Mills, which means that many banks further south can't be bothered with the hassle of dealing with it. Has anyone seen the Northern Bank (of Ireland) plastic notes? I'm aware that Oz has produced them for some while, but they're the only ones I've seen around here - I keep one in my wallet.