The Icy Cold Stare of a Killer

Ever looked a murderer in the eyes and no, I’m not talking about my wife again !

I was reading the Daily Record on-line the other day and the on-going activities of Ian ‘Blink’ McDonald (pictured). Glasgow’s most notorious criminal was leading the front pages once again. Within the space of three days there had been two separate attempts on his life and this will undoubtedly continue until he’s in a wooden box, six feet down, but it was a mention of one of his previous crimes which made me realise I’d come face to face with the guy a few years back.

Below is McDonald’s summary from his ‘CV’:

Ian "Blink" McDonald is one of the most infamous gangsters in Scotland's bloody history. Life long friend of Paul Ferris, Blinks’ chequered career has involved armed robbery, several allegations of murder and turf wars. Highly respected throughout the UK by the criminal fraternity, Blink is regularly described by the Scottish press as a vicious psychopath.

So now you have the picture of the guy but let me explain where I ‘met’ him. It wasn’t a pleasant experience.

Not long after I started work with BT in London, I used to pop down to the Old Bailey, London’s Central Criminal Court, which is reserved for the highest profile criminal trials. After a few visits I got to know the process for getting into the public gallery of the more interesting trials. It’s not always possible, unless you know the names of the people on trial, to work out what trial is which, so the idea is to ask the officers outside each courtroom what’s happening. They’re usually very good and will tell you if a trial is having a long legal argument (boring), is in the opening addresses (somewhat boring) or is in the final stages when the tension starts to rise.

On this particular day back in 1992, as I was wandering from court to court looking for something interesting, I came across Court No 6 with two armed police officers outside the public gallery. I asked the court officer if I could get in and he replied that as it was a ‘highly secure trial’ I could only gain access if I had my passport on me. Now it just so happened that I had my passport on me, as at that time I was commuting back and forth to Nice, so he was rather surprised when I produced it.

When I entered the court there was only one other person in the gallery, a rather attractive, but heavily made up woman. Not long after, there was a short recess for some legal argument and as the court emptied, apart from the lawyers and the judge, I sidled over to the woman and asked her what the trial was about. She was a bit reluctant to talk but I managed to get something about ‘6 Scottish guys on trial for bank robbery’.

The court then reconvened and the defendants piled into their benches which were just below where I was sitting in the public gallery. I noticed one of the defendants staring at me with a rather menacing look on his face. It didn’t take me long to figure out I was actually sitting next to this ‘gangster’s moll’ so I moved over a bit but he kept looking at me. It was quite disconcerting despite the fact that there was no way he could get to me, but yes, his cold staring eyes made me feel quite queasy.

In the couple of hours I sat through the trial, the alleged crime was laid bare – Blink McDonald (yes – the very same and the guy who looked at me in the court) was on trial with five of his mates for Bank Robbery. They’d made their way south to break into a branch of Nat West in Torquay and had tunnelled their way through from an adjoining shop on the Sunday, with the intention of surprising the bank staff on the Monday morning. But what they didn’t realise was that it was a Bank Holiday and when the bank eventually opened on the Tuesday, they were rather upset.

Unfortunately, there was a problem at the bank and one of the staff was shot, but lived. The police were hot on their trail but McDonald and his pals made it back to Scotland. Rather unprofessionally however, they had left a set of bank plans and other highly incriminating evidence in their caravan which they stayed in for a couple of weeks prior to the robbery. The caravan site owner recognised them, their prints were all over the bank plans, but most amusing of all was that a team of builders who were working on that Bank Holiday Monday saw McDonald and his cronies popping out of the bank for food several times that day! Just a bit suspicious.

McDonald got 16 years but was released after 10.

I did a previous blog on the gangsters in Glasgow – link below.

http://tomsfrenchblog.blogspot.com/2009_02_16_archive.html

Here Comes Summer

Now if I was in any way IT literate I’d have the song, ‘Here Comes Summer’, playing in the background as you read this. You remember – Jerry Keller. Never heard of him? Well he’s the one hit wonder who wrote and performed ‘Here Comes Summer’.  Anyway, my fellow blogger Allison in the US has music on her blog and I’m soooo jealous. Maybe she’ll take pity on me and tell me how it’s done. My botched solution would be to have a link to ‘Here Comes Summer’ on You Tube and you open a second version of this blog and click on the link. Why not ? Let’s try it – remember don’t close this page – open another and click on the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sePcM7QbraQ

Right – now we’ve got that working let’s get back to the main subject – summer’s here! It’s not rained for a few days and there are certain things which undoubtedly mean the hot days are here to stay. I mean I can actually go into the pool now without needing mouth to mouth resuscitation and a thermal blanket when I get out. La famille is now eating outside on the terrace every lunchtime and evening – this is great cause it keeps the mess outside and do you know – we stay outside talking rather than all rush to see what’s on the telly. Shadow sleeps out every night now – preferring the cool tiles to the carpet in front of the fireplace, and Tan and Angie (the neighbours) are spending more evenings out on their terrace which is bad news cause I’ll be tempted to go over and join them. You remember – lots of drink and sore heads !!

But the main sign of summer arriving is the two world-famous  May events held down here on the Côte d’Azur, the Cannes Film Festival and the Monaco Grand Prix

The Film Festival has started already and of course, after some dodgy weather, amazingly it all cleared up for the film makers and stars, just like you would expect it to. The red carpets are out, the maga-yachts are fighting for mooring space, there’s not a parking space to be had in Cannes (pictured)  and the restaurants are busy, but not as busy in recent years apparently.  The credit crunch even gets to these people. But whatever, the fact is that planeloads of blonde wannabees, looking to secure a film-producer boyfriend, will be jetting into Cannes which is at its finest during the festival . It’s a sure sign that summer is here. Here is a link to a short film showing Cannes during the festival. It was made by some friends who have a website which gives a true taste of this part of the world. The link to their AMB website is at the end. Now you need to end the You Tube song before you play the video otherwise there will be a clash !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m12aHwiZXGk&fmt=22

The other famous event, is of course, the Monaco Grand Prix, held in the streets of the Principality and causing most of the residents who are on the circuit to either move out for the weekend, or rent their apartments, most of them achieving the equivalent of 6 months rent in those 3, incredibly noisy days.

For weeks beforehand, the street circuit will have been a hive of frantic activity with council workers (probably the best dressed in the world !) putting up the steel barriers which define the track. They will also make sure that there are no lumps and bumps in the tarmac which will, for those 3 days, find cars running over it at speeds approaching 180 mph. The mega-yachts will have moved round from Cannes in a convoy of sumptuous largesse and will again fight for mooring rights, and the restaurants which looked at Cannes with envy, will now enjoy their busiest period of the year.  

I was lucky enough to attend the Grand Prix a few years ago and apart from it being probably the noisiest and most uncomfortable sporting event I have ever sat through, it was also the most exciting and glamorous.  An indication of what it’s like for spectators is defined by what the vendors sell you as you sit in the stands – ear plugs and sun cream! Says it all really.

Here’s the link to that great Côte d’Azur website AMB. Enjoy a browse.

http://www.amb-cotedazur.com/

And here’s a link to some quirky photographs taken at the Cannes Film Festival which appeared in the Daily Telegraph.

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/5351119/The-Cannes-Film-Festival-from-another-angle.html

Now That’s What I Call A Fine

What was the last fine you got - £60 for speeding?  £30 for dropping litter? What about €1.1 billion? I’ll say that again - €1,100,000,000 or, in English, Eleven hundred million euros or even one thousand, one hundred million euros. It’s eye watering but that’s the fine just handed out by the European Commission to Intel, the computer chip maker. And this is only one of the fines it has received for abusing it’s dominance of the computer chip market. Apparently, they (Intel) have been making sure most of the computers built today have Intel chips in them by ‘bribing’ the manufactures.

Neelie Kroes, the EC Competition Commissioner, said: "Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for computer chips for many years." She said Intel had abused its dominance of the microchip market to bully its customers into buying only its chips in the hope of squeezing Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), its nearest competitor, out of the market.

The EU executive said Intel paid computer makers to postpone or cancel plans to launch products that used AMD chips, paid illegal, secret rebates so computer makers would use mostly or entirely Intel chips, and paid a major retailer to stock only computers with its chips.

AMD, which alerted various regulatory bodies to Intel’s nasty little tricks,  has already successfully convinced competition authorities in Japan and South Korea to rule against Intel. Intel is appealing against the Japanese ruling.

Under European legislation, Ms Kroes could have fined Intel up to 10pc of the company's annual revenue which, based on sales of $37.6bn (£24.5bn) last year, could result in a maximum fine of almost $4bn so a 25% ‘hit’ is not a bad result!

Today's fine eclipses the previous record €497m fine brought against Microsoft in 2004 for freezing out competitors

Intel Corporation is the world's largest semiconductor company and the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors, the processors found in most PCs. Intel was founded in 1968 and was an early developer of memory chips and this represented the majority of its business until the early 1980s. During the 1990s, Intel invested heavily in new microprocessor designs fostering the rapid growth of the PC industry. During this period Intel became the dominant supplier of microprocessors for PCs, and was known for aggressive and sometimes controversial tactics in defence of its market position, as well as a struggle with Microsoft for control over the direction of the PC industry.

The problem I have is that whilst I hate ‘dominant market abuse’, and Microsoft are right up there with the worst of them, there’s little I can do about it. I could buy a Mac instead of a PC with Windows but you’ve got all the problems with compatibility and the other thing is that people would think you were Gay! And try buying a PC without Intel chips. There are some with AMD chips or other lesser known manufacturer’s chips but they are few and far between and tend to be ‘specialist’ machines for gamers etc.

So, for the foreseeable future we’ll all still buy Intel chipped PCs with Windows software and not think too much about it and we’ll leave the  regulatory authorities to lavish huge fines on them when they’re caught manipulating the market. Problem is, some of the €1.1 billion is mine – PCs would undoubtedly be cheaper if there was fair competition – so what are you going to do with the €1.1 billion fine Neelie? I think I’d like it to go to charity – maybe buying AMD PCs with Linux for children in underdeveloped countries.  

For Sale - Only €7m

 I’ve said before that one of the most useful things out here is the web site called AngloInfo which not only supplies a myriad of information on everything from when you can burn your garden rubbish to the travails of buying a house or setting up a small business. It also has a ‘bring and buy’ forum where members can sell things which are no longer required in their households, including the house itself.

I’ve been lucky enough to buy a whole host of things from other members of the forum, ranging from cars to dishwashers, garden furniture to scooters and not one of them has been a bad buy. I even managed to rent my house through Anglo with scores of people asking for details within minutes of the house being posted there. It’s a great resource for ex-pats but sometimes people just expect too much from Anglo. Read the following advert and see what you think.  

A luxurious 450 sqm villa in a private and secure domain with a beautiful view of the bay of Cannes.

Luxuriously renovated, the property floor space is 450 sqm plus a 50 sqm guard’s house. This propriety with generous volumes is situated on flat land of about 2900 sqm. The property has a pool, pool house and sea and mountains view. Located in an absolutely quiet domain.

Price: €7,100,000 euros (Can be sold furnished or unfurnished).

€7.1 million euros! Who do they think reads Anglo – the rich and the hoi polloy? Maybe they’re just trying to sell it without engaging an estate agent, the fees of whom are absolutely astronomical. In the UK the normal agency fee can be anywhere from 1.5% to 2.5%, or maybe even 3% if you employ a fancy-dan agency. In France it can be from 6% to 7% on a good day – that’s €426,000 for selling that house described above! Maybe Angloinfo wasn’t such a bad idea after all?

No wonder the estate agents all have fancy houses and drive about in Porsches!

The Obama Burger

Did you see the pictures of President Obama heading off for a burger a couple of weeks ago? It was hugely impressive and hilarious at the same time.

I assume he just decided he fancied a burger for lunch but rather than get a flunky to go out and get one he decided to head off to Ray’s Hell Burger Bar but, of course, the whole motorcade had to be fired up and head down to Ray’s, black limo after black limo, stretching almost the whole length of the street.

I was quite impressed by this common touch  from the ‘most powerful man’ on the planet, who, I’m sure was trying to make it look like a normal activity of his, but watching Obama order a burger made me feel that he hadn’t done it before, or at least, not recently.

He stumbled over what sort of burger to order and then asked about the kind of mustard they had. I’m sure most American burger bars and their clients know exactly what sort of mustard they serve, but good old Barack wanted Dijon, which seemed to surprise a few people and he got a bit of flak for it in the press. I know that when I reach the counter of a burger bar I know exactly what I want – a double bacon cheeseburger with extra mayo.

Anyway – whether planned or on the spur of the moment, his visit to Ray’s confirmed what many of us like about the guy – he’s normal in some respects. I just wish he’d had ketchup or mayo instead of mustard! For the record, Obama had a cheddar cheese burger.

But what about our other ‘world’ leaders? What would they do at lunchtime?

We know that President Sarkozy favours his 3-Michelin Star restaurant (The Hotel Bristol) 200 yards from the Elyseé Palace where he lunches regularly. I bet he doesn’t have a cheeseburger, well not now. Apparently, Sarko has been trying to up his sophistication level since he met and married the very sophisticated Carla Bruni, even taking an interest in the arts which were anathema to him before he got hitched.

And what about Gordon Brown. He’s such a workaholic that the phrase, ‘lunch is for wimps’ might have been uttered by him long before Gordon Gekko said it in the film Wall Street. But we do know that his favoured snack is some sandwiches with the boys in the bunker talking about football, although as a Raith Rovers fan what he thinks he knows about football is anyone’s guess.

The other thing about Brown though, is that he’s a cannibal. Rumour has it that he keeps biting the heads off of his staff. I bet he’s the kind of guy who, when eating a jelly baby bites the head off first!

And then there’s Angela Merkel of Germany whom I do not envy one bit. Having worked just outside Munich for six months I struggle to think of one decent meal I had there. One particularly disgusting meal was hot smoked salmon with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. Yuck. Poor Angela.

I would proudly take all of them to the Midi in the village for homemade quiche and frites followed by their hot chocolate and pear tart.