General

Using A Safe On Holiday? Think Again.

Welcome to the Platinum Jubilee special of this blog. Yep, I’m totally jumping on the bandwagon, waving the imaginary Union Jacks, and maybe even having a glass of wine or two to celebrate Liz’s 70 years at the helm. And not just because of the extra bank holiday, but also…well, mainly it’s about the extra bank holiday. 

But how is this a Platinum Jubilee special, you may be asking. Well, apart from the fact I’m writing this over the long bank holiday weekend whilst wearing my Queen Elizabeth II limited edition souvenir pair of underpants, I’ve also built in a tenuous link to holidays – the very thing some of us are enjoying at the moment. Okay, tenuous, and yes, I was also lying about the underpants, but let’s move on.  

Keeping Your Car Safe in Rotherham

So I was listening to the radio in my van the other day and Cars by Gary Numan was playing. You know the one - “Here in my car, I feel safest of all, I can lock all my doors, It's the only way to live in cars.” And I thought to myself I’m not sure he’s thought through the practicalities of living in a car – what about when he needs to go to the toilet, for one? Not to mention showering or when he wants to invite the family round for a meal. But who am I to argue with Gary?

Holidays With A Rotherham Locksmith

What with Covid and lockdowns, it’s not really been much of a time for touring the world. To some of us that won’t have made much of a difference whilst for others it will have felt like quite the restriction. There has been the advantage in that less thought has had to be given to how to protect your house whilst you’re away for a summer holiday, but all being told, it’s not much of a silver lining to the staycation cloud.

Rotherham Home Security After Lockdown Ends

Right, well it’s nearly Easter and hopefully the slight relaxing of lockdown means we can enjoy it a bit more than we might have otherwise done. We’re still in a long process, and who knows what the rules are now – I think we’re allowed to swim outside as long as we’re accompanied by our mum and a full meal, but not if there is someone else in the lake with a longer surname. As I say, it’s a bit confusing but, just like the extracting of the Ever Given from the Suez canal we’ll get there eventually.

It’s been a long wait for a bit of normality, and in general it’s great news for us all. But then I come along to inject a bit of caution into proceedings. And no, “Caution” isn’t the new brand of vaccine that’s coming out soon. My caution isn’t related to the health situation – I’ll leave that to the Chief Medical Officers and the like, but rather about the catching up that burglars have to do when we eventually leave our homes. 

Locksmith History Lesson.

We’re a month into this third lockdown, and looks like we’ll be that way until at least March. This means even more dreaded home-schooling of our kids and that got me thinking about how I could unleash my inner Joe Wicks. Don’t worry - that’s not an unpleasant euphemism, and nor am I about to start leading keep-fit Zoom classes. Instead, my contribution will be a history lesson in the form of a whistle-stop tour through the evolution of locks and locksmiths over the years. Never fear – there will be no examination at the end, just count it as a bit of extra knowledge you’ve gained today, before having a cup of tea to celebrate. 

The History of uPVC Windows

After the 76 weeks of January, it seems as if February may finally be in view. If you look closely, that is. And those 2 sentences contain not-so-subtle clues to the subject of today’s blog. Notably the phrases “in view” and “look closely”. Where can you look closely at a view? Why, through a window, of course. And there we have it, the new most convoluted segue of the year so far. 

So in a departure from locks, doors and other security issues, today we’ll have a brief look at the recent history of a particular type of window. I can sense you are all agog, impatiently waiting to discover which particular type of window the next 800 words or so will cover. I will keep you on tenterhooks no longer – it will be the uPVC variety. Bad luck to those of you who had Windows 95 or Windows XP in the sweepstake, maybe next time.

Locksmith Resolutions For 2020

As we say farewell to 2019 and welcome in 2020 it’s worth taking a second to calmly reflect on the passing of time. Before shrieking “TWENTY TWENTY!? How the blazes did we get here? It was only 1987 a few minutes ago.. make it stop. MAKE IT STOP, no, don’t lock me up again…” and then escaping into the woods, a blubbering mess. But maybe that’s just me.

Now that we’re further ahead than the original Blade Runner was set, and far beyond how far they travelled to in Back to the Future, science fiction would have us believe that we should all be jetting around on flying skateboards with our android-human hybrid pals. We may have to accept we face a touch of disappointment on that score but hey, at least we have the ability to play Candy Crush no matter where we are in the world. 

As any opportunist gravy thief knows, the turn of the year is an excellent time to take stock. And also to look forward to the year ahead, perhaps making a resolution or two. Resolutions are always a tricky beast – make them too difficult like resolving to solve climate change in 2020 and you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. But going the other way and making them too easy, like resolving to eat a tube of fruit pastilles per day, and where’s the challenge in that? 

So if you’re struggling to strike the right balance with your resolutions, fear not, for I am here to provide some suggestions. And whilst you might suspect they’ll all be around the subject of making your house more secure, I’m going to surprise you and say they’re not. Nah, only kidding, they are really. But they ARE useful, so here we go. 

Where Do Burglars Look In The House

Now I don’t normally have much time for burglars. To be honest, as a locksmith, they are my nemesis. The Lex Luther to my Superman, the Riddler to my Joker, the Donald Trump to my reasonable human being. As such, I don’t tend to pay much heed of what they say. 

However, for every rule there is an exception. And that exception was a recent report I came across, commissioned by John Lewis insurance. This report, carried out in conjunction with an offender rehabilitation agency, interviewed a number of reformed offenders for the purpose of finding out the behaviour pattern of burglars, most notably the places they would target when breaking into a property.  This then informed the recommendations of the report when it came to the best places for householders to keep their valuables to help protect them.

Rotherham Locksmith Spring Security Advice

Well, hello there and a belated happy 2019 to you. I’d like to say I’d been doing something exciting, and that’s the reason for my brief absence from these pages but that would be a lie. Work, winter and life took over for the last two and a half months. But now spring is on the horizon and with it come all sort of, well… springy arrivals like warmer weather, new-born lambs, and…err… new things to look out for when it comes to home security. Much as I’m all across the subject of birthing lambs, it’s more the latter subject that I’ll be concerned about today – a look at how to keep safe as the warmer weather arrives.

Know The Difference With Your Cylinder Locks

You’re probably seen the John Lewis advert by now and, even if not, you can’t have escaped at least knowing about it. It features Elton John and travels back in time to see how all his success can, at least in part, be traced back to when he was given a gift of a piano as a child. Now you may not know, but this wasn’t the first draft of this advert because originally it was an advert created by myself, and this is how it unfolded.