I WOZ HACKED! (AN APPEAL FOR HELP!)

Just to let any regular visitors know that my blog has been offline for a while. The reason is that I believe that it has been hacked into. Statcounter has shown links which go directly to my blog editing pages and which show that posts have been edited by somebody other than me and then emailed out to another person.

Although I have previously speculated about who might have done this to me, that was just a wild guess. I really have no proof who it is. The hacker definitely had a liking for posts about a certain topic: but then, he or she may just have picked on the subject most likely to get me nervous, just to have a good laugh at my expense! The posts which were emailed out have however been removed – at least for the time being – to hopefully avoid any further unauthorised activity……

I am – of course – very concerned about who has received the altered posts and what has been said about me in them. If the recipient visits this blog, then please do contact me and put my mind at ease about this.

Comments left on this blog now have to be approved before posting… so if you leave a comment and request that it is not published, I will stand by your request.

Alternatively, I can always be contacted via the contact form on the sidebar at the left.

This blog is now monitored by both Statcounter and Sitemeter, although the statatistics from these are not publicly available. The Sitemeter statistics were previously public, but my hacker apparently took a sudden interest in them after I mentioned that another visitor using a proxy had visited my blog.

No doubt this will not be my last word on this subject……
Seeker will be back and will rise above this! Bullies must never, ever be allowed to win!

23rd OCTOBER 2014

The post which was originally published on the morning of the 23rd October 2014 has been taken offline for the time being, because of subsequent events related to the strange (and apparently unfriendly) visitors who have invaded this blog. However, it seems appropriate to add a short explanation of what happened on that day.

The post I published was an open letter to somebody who I speculated might be behind the strange activity. It was pure guesswork really – the result of my sheer bewilderment at who might have been doing this to me – and this individual was the only person I could think of whom I had (albeit unintentionally) upset online. Publishing that post was obviously a big mistake by me: although nobody was named in the post and it was one hundred per cent conciliatory. 

Many months later, I still have no idea who is behind all the strange activity. I no longer really suspect the person I thought it might have been before. However, I can definitely say that the post published on the 23rd October 2014 evoked a very strong reaction from my strange visitor. Just an hour after me publishing it, no less than 9 of the strange visits in which he seemed to be editing my posts and widgets appeared in my Statcounter logs, all within the space of about 15 minutes. Why did my post create such a strong reaction? I have no idea!

One of the visitors on that day was from an engineering firm in Georgia, U.S.A. Although this visitor was not actually shown to be doing any of the apparent blog editing, it does seem that his visit may well have been connected to the others. I live in the U.K., so why would somebody from an engineering firm in Georgia have any interest in trying to upset and annoy me with these strange visits? Why would they react so strongly to the post I published on that morning? Why did their visit take place when it would have been around 3 a.m. in Georgia? So many questions, but answers are few and far between. The search for answers will however carry on……….

For details of all the visitors from the day in question please go to: –

http://inspectorhackerinvestigates.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/23rdOct2014

FOR THE TIME BEING, THIS IS A MUSIC ONLY BLOG

As music is such an important part of my life, I have often thought of creating a music blog…. so for the time being at least, that is what this blog is going to be!

I AM STILL HERE!

I do not know where the past week or two have gone, I just do not seem to have had much time to myself! I think the Greek lessons starting up again have been a lot to do with it: I enjoy the lessons, but the homework can be such a real pain and usually takes me far longer than it should do!

Our son and his wife went off to Bulgaria yesterday. He was really nervous and reluctant to go….. unsurprisingly, as they will be in a strange country where they cannot speak the language. Personally, I think the initial idea of them going to Spain or Portugal where he could teach English was a better one…. but maybe they will move on there later. For the time being, they are keeping on their flat here as they do not want to lose it in case they come back soon…. but the fact that this means they will still have to pay the rent is madness, in my humble opinion. These offspring – that generation as a whole, in fact – oftten seem unprepared to make sacrifices to get where they want to be. Our son was miserable about having to go and actually seemed quite angry at the rules that mean that settling in this country as a couple would be difficult. I was thinking (but did not say) that this is the reason I was so upset when I first learned that he had sought out an internet relationship once again. He already knew what a difficult path it was that he was choosing, so there is no point getting angry now that he is beginning to encounter the difficulties!

I really have grown to love our son’s new wife though and am going to miss them both so much. Our son wanted us to go over there to be with them at Christmas and daughter and I both liked that idea a lot, but my husband said no. He gave the reason as us having had a lot of expenditure this year, especially as far as helping out both our children financially is concerned. I think the real reason is though that he just does not want to go! Daughter and I laughed because later on the same evening he offered our son more financial help and when our son was reluctant to take it, he said that we are okay financially and can easily afford to help! I do not think he realised that he was contradicting what he had said earlier! 🙂 As far as going to Bulgaria at Christmas is concerned though, both daughter and I became less enthusiastic when we learned that there are forecasts of mega-low temperatures being expected there this winter. I think temperatures of around minus twenty or whatever would quite possibly be the end of me! Seriously………

I myself am alright…. although am once again not feeling too well when I wake up in the morning. I really should go back to see my doctor again, but it is such a pain to have to keep going back with problems they cannot find answers to! It is strange that I felt so much better during the summer; maybe I am simply allergic to winter weather! 😉 I need to go back anyway to get my blood pressure tested again, as it was high last time. In spite of the problems though, once I recover from feeling bad on waking I am then at the moment remaining physically much fitter that I was last winter when just walking a few yards seemed like an impossibly task. I have absolutely no idea what it was that caused that sheer exhaustion, but am definitely going to work hard to try to keep it from coming back again.

Yesterday morning, my husband and I went out for coffee with a lady my husband had chatted up at his weekday church services! 🙂 She is from South America but has a daughter living in this area, plus a grandchild living in Wales. She has come over here for a few months now to support her daughter whose relationship has recently broken down. I was very apprehensive about being dragged out to coffee with somebody I had never met, especially as English is not her first language. It went okay: she seems very nice and her English is pretty good, although it is still hard to understand her sometimes. She is going back to South America in the new year anyway, so no point getting to know her too well!

My husband annoyed me a bit, as he emailed her afterwards and said that I had thought she was a lovely person…. lol! Me being an introvert, I would be most unlikely to email somebody I had met only once and say that I thought they were a lovely person!!! Maybe that is where I go wrong though!!! 🙂 Anyway, we are taking this lady out for a drive in the country one day and possibly visit a NT property, so that will hopefully be nice.

SOME PROBLEMS (BUT I DID HAVE A GOOD LAUGH!)

On Wednesday night my husband and I agreed that instead of going to Mass at noon as we usually do on a Thursday, he would go by himself at 10 and then we would go to the gym for a swim. We have been going in the evenings recently, but it means we have no evening at home….. and I have been complaining that I want to go in the morning.

Yesterday morning though, my husband changed his mind! He remembered he had to go to a local Christian bookshop to choose and collect some books, as we have somehow got lumbered with running a bookstall at our church once a month. In the event, he was very late indeed coming back as he was naughty and went to a church quite a way from here, on the bus!

When he eventually did get back, he said that as it was such a lovely day we should go out….. so we got in the car and headed to a pub about 20 miles away, on the way to Eastbourne. They do some fishcakes we really like as a starter and we add a side dish of chips, resulting in a fairly cheap meal. Just as we neared our destination (which is an isolated pub, reached along little winding country lanes), the good weather was threatened by some rather ominous storm clouds, so our plan to sit out in the pub garden was ditched. We were still looking forward to our meal though.

When we arrived, my husband parked the  car in front of the pub and we got out. As we did so, he detected a burning smell coming from one of the back tyres. It was very hot; we could feel the warmth coming from it when we stood by it. My husband was worried, so he rang the RAC who said they would be there in about 45 minutes.

We went inside where – just as we had ordered our meal – we got a call from the RAC guy assigned to assist us to confirm our whereabouts. This was just as well, as rather oddly there are 2 pubs with the same name pretty near each other – and he was intending to head to the wrong one! Lol! He told us that he was now going to be with us in just 15 minutes….. so, just as my husband’s meal arrived on.the table, he had to leave his dinner to get cold while he went out to see the RAC guy.

It turned out that the problem was with the calliper which was jamming against the tyre and making it hot. The RAC said that the calliper would have to be replaced. Meanwhile, he freed the wheel and told us we could drive a very short distance as long as the handbrake was not used at all. He said though that it was dangerous to drive for longer than a few minutes as it could catch fire. Not very welcome news, as we were about 20 miles from home!

First of all, we were thinking of driving to the nearest station and catching the train home, though that would have taken a long time and involved getting two trains and a bus. However, some guys in the pub convinved my husband that the car would be okay to drive home, as long as the handbrake was not used. We got in.the car and my husband covered the handbrake with his jumper to stop him using it. Unfortunately though, as soon as he began to start up, the car (which was on a slight slope, facing the pub) started to roll towards the wall of the pub. My husband’s automatic reaction was to immediately grab the handbrake – the one thing he was supposed to be avoiding! The jumper covering the handbrake in no way prevented him from using it.

This struck me as incredibly funny. I could not stop laughing…. I don’t think I have had a good long laugh like that for ages. It does you good to laugh…. I really should do much more of it!

Anyway, my husband drove the car to a garage in a nearby village (the pub is out in the depths of the countryside!) and they very kindly freed the wheel again, so that we could drive home. I decided to place my hand with the back of my fingers resting on the housing for the gear stick and the remainder of my hand covering the handbrake, so that my husband could not use it. This proved to be one of my better ideas, as there was indeed one occasion when I stopped him from automatically using the handbrake. Thus we made it home.

We had our swimming gear with us, planning to go on to the gym after our meal, but that idea had to be scrapped. My husband has arranged for the work to be done on Monday, so we will not be going far this weekend. Unfortunately, the work will cost a few hundred pounds too….. but at least we got home safely and without incident.