A woman has had a hitman jailed. No, not for killing someone. For not killing someone, despite the fact that she paid him multiple times.

Kent Online article (no sub):

After they had both left hospital, Mrs Ryder contacted him and repeated her request. Reeves said a friend would do the job but the price was now £5,000.

Mrs Ryder gave Reeves a cheque for the amount and it was paid into his account. He told her she would be killed in a drive-by shooting on June 11 2003. But shortly before, he telephoned her and cancelled it.

"He later said he had to kill the hitman and the money had gone to his widow," said the prosecutor. "Mrs Ryder was desperate to end her life, so she asked Mr Reeves if he himself would kill her.

I boggle slightly. No, I boggle a lot. There must be cheaper ways to commit suicide. And "I'm sorry, but my sub-contractor had to be terminated" will never sound quite the same again.

I need a faster network.

I've been copying these files for ... well, long enough to have got bored, driven into town, had a haircut, found some dark chocolate with almonds, discovered that there is a photographic shop in town, bought a blower brush for my camera, asked about development costs from a memory card, come back, made some coffee, and settled down again. And it's still only got to 'O'.

So it's LJ, or writing a spec, while waiting for all that to finish.

Ah, now just got to 'P'

Update: And crashed during 'Q'. Hah!

Good grief, it isn't Tony's week

Lords defeat for anti-terror plan (BBC)

In our little local Tesco this evening, I was down at that end of an aisle where the spices are stacked. And I saw one of the most egregious examples I've ever seen of the fact that much of what you buy is not strictly priced by weight, but often by how much hassle it is getting it to you.

38g of Hot Chilli powder. £1.36
1000g of Hot Chilli powder. £2.99

Yes, for little more than twice the price, you can have over 25 times as much.

(I'm also not entirely sure why the place is selling Hot Chilli powder by the kilo. Perhaps they've heard that a P Morwood may visit one day.)