Old friends Imogen and Jonathan here yesterday for lunch. We met in the street I used to live in, and where Jonathan rented a tiny room. They now eke out a living on 13 acres in East Sussex, running livery stables, keeping sheep, pigs and hens and growing their own vegetables. That's in between chauffeuring their five daughters to and from school etc.
Thursday's post brought an eye-watering estimate for the replacement of the boiler, so we may just make the one we've got soldier on a bit longer. I'm all for reducing consumption and emissions, but not at any price! The government scrappage voucher wouldn't even pay the VAT, and it would take more years than I've got to break even on fuel savings. We'll perhaps see whether we can pare away some of the extras - and inflated margins.
Meanwhile, my baby plants are popping up enthusiastically on the window ledges. At this rate, I'll be potting up gerberas by the end of next week. No signs yet from the antirrhinum or lobelia seeds, but the one bought and three saved batches of rudbeckia seed are all starting to germinate - with one of last year's saved lots in a clear lead. The seed sown in the conservatory are not yet showing any signs of life - it's that bit colder out there. So the next question is how to get some of Immy and Jon's inexhaustible supply of muck back here without polluting the car for months to come?
Saturday, 27 February 2010
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
24 February: Plays, plants, plumbing and pleasant company
Nice day yesterday: we had friends from London here for lunch and supper and a good natter during and between. Unfortunately, the weather was dull and sleety, so their train ride (on the leafy, largely single-track route to a nearby country halt) won’t have been as pretty as it can be in fine weather. Anyway, it was lovely to catch up with a chap we’ve known for some years, and to meet his delightful new partner. They live in East London, just across the High Road from where my mother was born and brought up.
Seedlings are emerging on the window ledges, but those I’ve sown in the much cooler conservatory are wisely keeping their heads down. Surprisingly, the gerbera, penstemon and achillea were among the first to show.
I’ve spent a bit of time today updating the Historia web site: Kate has written a play set in 1938 Berlin, and as we get dates, I’ll be putting them on the performance schedule page on the web. Bookmark the Historia home page, and I’ll put a note in the blog when there are engagements to report. It took a moment to remember how to get from MS FrontPage via the ftp uploader to the web host, since I no longer use that route for the blog, but we got there in the end. I think.
Today’s other modest achievement was to change the float valve in the downstairs lavatory, which had been refilling very slowly. I have an instinctive fear of plumbing, and was reminded at intervals why this is so. When I hooked it all up the first time, it leaked like mad. Somehow, the rubber washer between the supply pipe and the ball valve had gone AWOL, so I had to dig around in my tool box to find another. Fortunately there was one in there, and it’s proving to keep the relevant element confined. Moral: Never Throw Anything Away. Next, the damn’ cistern kept overflowing into the pan, so it took repeated trial and error visits to the (fortunately adjustable) float arrangement before it worked properly, filling to the right level and stopping. OK, it only cost me £8.99 for the parts, plus a few miles’ worth of diesel, and a number of hours' unpaid work for the benefit of the community, so I guess I’m ahead of the game by the thick end of £100. Just as well, since it cost almost that much on Monday to get a blocked kitchen sink gully rodded. I remain convinced that I am not of such stuff as plumbers are made on.
Seedlings are emerging on the window ledges, but those I’ve sown in the much cooler conservatory are wisely keeping their heads down. Surprisingly, the gerbera, penstemon and achillea were among the first to show.
I’ve spent a bit of time today updating the Historia web site: Kate has written a play set in 1938 Berlin, and as we get dates, I’ll be putting them on the performance schedule page on the web. Bookmark the Historia home page, and I’ll put a note in the blog when there are engagements to report. It took a moment to remember how to get from MS FrontPage via the ftp uploader to the web host, since I no longer use that route for the blog, but we got there in the end. I think.
Today’s other modest achievement was to change the float valve in the downstairs lavatory, which had been refilling very slowly. I have an instinctive fear of plumbing, and was reminded at intervals why this is so. When I hooked it all up the first time, it leaked like mad. Somehow, the rubber washer between the supply pipe and the ball valve had gone AWOL, so I had to dig around in my tool box to find another. Fortunately there was one in there, and it’s proving to keep the relevant element confined. Moral: Never Throw Anything Away. Next, the damn’ cistern kept overflowing into the pan, so it took repeated trial and error visits to the (fortunately adjustable) float arrangement before it worked properly, filling to the right level and stopping. OK, it only cost me £8.99 for the parts, plus a few miles’ worth of diesel, and a number of hours' unpaid work for the benefit of the community, so I guess I’m ahead of the game by the thick end of £100. Just as well, since it cost almost that much on Monday to get a blocked kitchen sink gully rodded. I remain convinced that I am not of such stuff as plumbers are made on.
Sunday, 21 February 2010
21 February
We went to see The Last Station on Friday evening. Fine performances from Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer, though the screenplay was a bit pedestrian, I felt. Shot largely in Thuringia and the Saxonies, evidently, with studio stuff in Potsdam. Hadn't realised that Germany was being used as a location: wonder if it has to do with Brussels money being thrown at structures in the new Länder.
And a first here this morning. As I glanced out the window, a treecreeper was spiralling its way up next door's oak tree. Unmistakable - brown back and a pure white throat and belly. It didn't hang around long enough for me to get the glasses and confirm the downturned bill, though.
And a first here this morning. As I glanced out the window, a treecreeper was spiralling its way up next door's oak tree. Unmistakable - brown back and a pure white throat and belly. It didn't hang around long enough for me to get the glasses and confirm the downturned bill, though.
Thursday, 18 February 2010
18 February: garden present and future
The bulbs have put on something of a spurt in the past week, though we've yet to see colour. My framer's garden, par contre, was full of naturalised snowdrops yesterday when I called, and some crocuses, doubtless better established than ours, were showing colour. It shocked us rather to find how few bulbs there were in the garden when we came here - a few spavined daffodils, and damn' all else. But then, there wasn't really a flower bed anywhere in the garden. How things have changed.
Window ledges are in short supply. In the past few days we've sown rudbeckia (with seed saved from three colours last autumn, plus one bought packet), bidens, petunia, penstemon, gerbera (more in hope than in expectation of success), achillea, lobelia and antirrhinum (aka, according to the late Vic's late Mum, anti-geraniums. I like the sentiment). More to follow once the conservatory is warmer more regularly.
Window ledges are in short supply. In the past few days we've sown rudbeckia (with seed saved from three colours last autumn, plus one bought packet), bidens, petunia, penstemon, gerbera (more in hope than in expectation of success), achillea, lobelia and antirrhinum (aka, according to the late Vic's late Mum, anti-geraniums. I like the sentiment). More to follow once the conservatory is warmer more regularly.
18 February
We had planned a day trip to France on Tuesday, and were up early (if not bright) to be greeted by steady rain, and a forecast of fog and snow in northern France. Since the ticket was very cheap, we decided to forfeit it. I’m at last coughing a bit less (following a heavy and tenacious cold), but my energy levels are still on the low side. Consequently, the decision to cancel was not a difficult one. We’ve stocked up the cellar from Sainsbury’s instead.
Fine bright day yesterday – what a welcome change! It was warm enough in the afternoon to sit in the conservatory without heating. The vernal symbolism of getting a load of washing out on the line to dry compensates a little for the drudgery involved. We took a couple of pot-boiler canvases along to the framer, and enjoyed a nice country drive in the process. One of Miss’s pieces – a nice little water colour – was there in the workshop ready for collection, so I’ll be able to suck up at today’s class! The pictures are another view of the Château de Durfort and the Col du Rousset piece I mentioned the other day. I’ve taken the framer’s advice and varnished them both (and very nearly died a death when I saw the effect on the first one. Fortunately it dried transparent…). This time, I noted the reference numbers of the two frame mouldings to which I seem to gravitate these days, so we won’t have to spend ages poring through the catalogue in future.
We have decided to take Mr Brown’s shilling and get a new central heating boiler. For those not acquainted with the scrappage concept, the government is offering a small subsidy to people who replace inefficient old boilers with more modern ones. As ours clearly went in when the house was built, we reckon the time’s about right. So our boiler fettler came round yesterday to measure up, and we’ll get a quote from him shortly. More muck and expense, but that’s what home ownership is about, I suppose. Meanwhile, we have persuaded the old freezer and fridge into the bigger of the garages, and will probably power up the former today at some point. The cookery books used to gather dust on top of the old fridge, but as the new one stands seven feet tall, that’s no longer an option! We’ve recycled a shelf that used to be in the guest room (only with the brackets fitted squarely and symmetrically this time), so the books are now close at hand when one’s sitting at the kitchen table. And talking of recycling, we’ve been freecycling again. When making room in the garage for the fridge, we found a couple of unopened boxes of the horrible tiles that a previous administration laid, after a fashion, on the kitchen floor. They are now outside the front door awaiting collection by a lady who took four old feather pillows off our hands a while back. We have shipped out a cheap, rickety desk chair, a chest of drawers and a sideboard by the same route in the past month or so, and are thus reducing the clutter without augmenting the landfill or burning our own diesel in the process.
The song thrush is serenading us each morning, and a chaffinch is starting to yell his repetitive little song. We hear woodpeckers drumming away in the trees, and I’ve heard the green woodpecker’s call a few times. The blackbirds and robins are very busy, as are tits of various stripes. Yet to see a nuthatch this year, though, and the dunnocks aren’t yet much in evidence. Neither, fortunately, is the heron, possibly dissuaded by the fruit netting on the pond.
Fine bright day yesterday – what a welcome change! It was warm enough in the afternoon to sit in the conservatory without heating. The vernal symbolism of getting a load of washing out on the line to dry compensates a little for the drudgery involved. We took a couple of pot-boiler canvases along to the framer, and enjoyed a nice country drive in the process. One of Miss’s pieces – a nice little water colour – was there in the workshop ready for collection, so I’ll be able to suck up at today’s class! The pictures are another view of the Château de Durfort and the Col du Rousset piece I mentioned the other day. I’ve taken the framer’s advice and varnished them both (and very nearly died a death when I saw the effect on the first one. Fortunately it dried transparent…). This time, I noted the reference numbers of the two frame mouldings to which I seem to gravitate these days, so we won’t have to spend ages poring through the catalogue in future.
We have decided to take Mr Brown’s shilling and get a new central heating boiler. For those not acquainted with the scrappage concept, the government is offering a small subsidy to people who replace inefficient old boilers with more modern ones. As ours clearly went in when the house was built, we reckon the time’s about right. So our boiler fettler came round yesterday to measure up, and we’ll get a quote from him shortly. More muck and expense, but that’s what home ownership is about, I suppose. Meanwhile, we have persuaded the old freezer and fridge into the bigger of the garages, and will probably power up the former today at some point. The cookery books used to gather dust on top of the old fridge, but as the new one stands seven feet tall, that’s no longer an option! We’ve recycled a shelf that used to be in the guest room (only with the brackets fitted squarely and symmetrically this time), so the books are now close at hand when one’s sitting at the kitchen table. And talking of recycling, we’ve been freecycling again. When making room in the garage for the fridge, we found a couple of unopened boxes of the horrible tiles that a previous administration laid, after a fashion, on the kitchen floor. They are now outside the front door awaiting collection by a lady who took four old feather pillows off our hands a while back. We have shipped out a cheap, rickety desk chair, a chest of drawers and a sideboard by the same route in the past month or so, and are thus reducing the clutter without augmenting the landfill or burning our own diesel in the process.
The song thrush is serenading us each morning, and a chaffinch is starting to yell his repetitive little song. We hear woodpeckers drumming away in the trees, and I’ve heard the green woodpecker’s call a few times. The blackbirds and robins are very busy, as are tits of various stripes. Yet to see a nuthatch this year, though, and the dunnocks aren’t yet much in evidence. Neither, fortunately, is the heron, possibly dissuaded by the fruit netting on the pond.
Monday, 15 February 2010
15 February, and some book notes
Just finished Rose Tremaine’s The Road Home. Though I’d been aware of her name, it didn’t occur to me to read anything she’d written until I was rummaging through an Amazon list of paperbacks. It makes me wonder whether the hordes of Eastern European workers in Britain these days all have similar stories, memories and dreams. And whether they all experience the trials and triumphs of Tremaine’s hero, Lev. Another I picked out of the Amazon list was Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray, which I enjoyed more for its epigrams and paradoxes than for its dark supernatural subject. Just for fun, I also ordered the Sebastian Faulks James Bond novel, Devil May Care, which I thought perfectly caught Fleming’s lightweight and self-conscious style, as well as his gift for turning out a far-fetched plot and a romping good read. Sorry about all the adjectives! Also in the last parcel of books was Alan Bennett’s Untold Stories, to which title, in parts, I have to reply ‘Pity you changed your mind’. His account of his early years and the characters in his family was charming in places, grindingly miserable in others. I was less interested in his analyses of his own works, and frankly don’t care a whole lot about all the honours he’s been offered and refused. His diary extracts were often fun to read, though. I think I’d advise someone thinking of reading it to do so in instalments, interspersed with other reading. Otherwise it becomes a bit of a litany of grumpiness, and a repetitive one at that. A bit like my blog, really, I suppose.
I have to report an unimpressive St Valentine’s Day lunch at the Rose Revived: the meal was disappointing and the service slack. And their idea of a tiny drop of Tabasco in the tomato juice does not tally with ours. We’d to send them back and substitute a jug of iced water. We made up for it at dinner time, when Martyn did a fine array of vegetables and Yorkshire puddings, and I grilled some lamb steaks that had been marinated for a few hours in honey, lemon juice, mustard, quince jelly and some seasoning.
It’s such a joy to see the days lengthening again. The sun is shining today, which also improves one’s view of the world, figuratively as well as literally. It has been quite frosty overnight, however, so if I do any sowing, I’ll need to fill the seed trays and bring them into the conservatory for a while first.
I have to report an unimpressive St Valentine’s Day lunch at the Rose Revived: the meal was disappointing and the service slack. And their idea of a tiny drop of Tabasco in the tomato juice does not tally with ours. We’d to send them back and substitute a jug of iced water. We made up for it at dinner time, when Martyn did a fine array of vegetables and Yorkshire puddings, and I grilled some lamb steaks that had been marinated for a few hours in honey, lemon juice, mustard, quince jelly and some seasoning.
It’s such a joy to see the days lengthening again. The sun is shining today, which also improves one’s view of the world, figuratively as well as literally. It has been quite frosty overnight, however, so if I do any sowing, I’ll need to fill the seed trays and bring them into the conservatory for a while first.
Friday, 12 February 2010
12 February
Today it has not snowed much since daybreak, and none is lying. It is not blowing a gale. There are occasional blinks of sunshine. So, I’ve spent half an hour in the garden, most of it chopping up the Christmas tree. We put it out once the January snows had gone, and it has stayed pretty decorative until the last few days. Getting knocked over by the strong winds hasn’t helped it a lot, and in the last few days it has started to brown off noticeably. So it is now chopped up and binned ready for next week’s garden waste collection. I’ve also tidied up the straggly remains of last year’s mint growth, and snicked off a few brambles here and there so that they won’t leap out and attack passers-by.
On the technology front, mixed news today. I had a call around 07:30 saying to expect fridge-freezer N°2 within the hour. At 08:20 I opened the door to a young man with mahogany skin and crimson hair, and wondered for a second whether I’d supped too eagerly of the electric soup last night. He and his colleague proved to be non-hallucinatory, and once I’d checked the goods on the lorry, in they schlepped it. It appears to be perfect this time, but I haven’t powered it up yet. Although it’s a whole lot bigger than the units it replaces, it occupies the same footprint, and so uses the available space better. On the computing front, I’ve had another morning of hopping up and downstairs to re-boot the hub, and a major cursing session when I completely lost the first draft of this blog. When I tried a while back to compose it in Word, then cut and paste to Blogspot, it didn’t work. Now, I find, it does. Alors là, je n’y comprends strictement rien.
Dinner tonight with some fellow beaks at one of Mother’s favourite pubs near the county town. As I recall, it was OK in a scampi & chips sort of way, but distinguished itself by terse orders of battle to diners. ‘1. Select table. 2. Select from menu. 3. Order at small bar, quoting table number. 4. Purchase drinks from main bar. 5. Bugger off and leave us in peace.’ (Well, not quite.) I haven’t been there since shortly after Ma died, back in 1998, so we’ll see whether it has improved in the meantime.
On the technology front, mixed news today. I had a call around 07:30 saying to expect fridge-freezer N°2 within the hour. At 08:20 I opened the door to a young man with mahogany skin and crimson hair, and wondered for a second whether I’d supped too eagerly of the electric soup last night. He and his colleague proved to be non-hallucinatory, and once I’d checked the goods on the lorry, in they schlepped it. It appears to be perfect this time, but I haven’t powered it up yet. Although it’s a whole lot bigger than the units it replaces, it occupies the same footprint, and so uses the available space better. On the computing front, I’ve had another morning of hopping up and downstairs to re-boot the hub, and a major cursing session when I completely lost the first draft of this blog. When I tried a while back to compose it in Word, then cut and paste to Blogspot, it didn’t work. Now, I find, it does. Alors là, je n’y comprends strictement rien.
Dinner tonight with some fellow beaks at one of Mother’s favourite pubs near the county town. As I recall, it was OK in a scampi & chips sort of way, but distinguished itself by terse orders of battle to diners. ‘1. Select table. 2. Select from menu. 3. Order at small bar, quoting table number. 4. Purchase drinks from main bar. 5. Bugger off and leave us in peace.’ (Well, not quite.) I haven’t been there since shortly after Ma died, back in 1998, so we’ll see whether it has improved in the meantime.
Wednesday, 10 February 2010
10 February
170th anniversary of the marriage of Victoria & Albert. And muckle guid may the knowledge thereof dae ye.
Scattering of snow on the ground this morning at first light. Heavy shower of powdery snow during the morning, light flurries this afternoon as I write. One is getting tired of this. Especially at a time when (see previous posts) one is surrounded by mediocrity.
Phone rang yesterday early evening: 'your delivery will be there tomorrow between 08:00 and 13:00'. Good. Checked website late morning (absent delivery by that point): 'your delivery will be there between 11:45 and 15:45'. Great, thought I: another day sterilised. Well, they were both right. The fridge-freezer arrived at 12:35, but damaged. They could have seen it before they removed the clear plastic packaging. They made it half-way to the door, at which point I said 'damaged - back you go'. Had the damage been on the side that didn't show, I'd have haggled a hefty price reduction. Not so, alas, so back it went, after some more or less acrimonious discussion of new delivery dates, and a reminder to pick up a lump of expanded polystyrene they'd left lying on the roadway. I feel sorry for the fellows who are at the customer-facing end of the mediocre consumer transaction, but they hardly covered themselves in glory.
Gracious provider of pension, on the other hand, seems to be improving the internet service: after some fiddling at the local exchange, downstream speed is almost half as fast again as last time it was tested, so maybe we're winning. But I still have a kitchen full of displaced fridge and freezer. Veteran blog readers will recall the fun when I was buying a fridge-freezer for the 2004 kitchen rebuild at Smith Towers. Looks like being a similar experience.
Scattering of snow on the ground this morning at first light. Heavy shower of powdery snow during the morning, light flurries this afternoon as I write. One is getting tired of this. Especially at a time when (see previous posts) one is surrounded by mediocrity.
Phone rang yesterday early evening: 'your delivery will be there tomorrow between 08:00 and 13:00'. Good. Checked website late morning (absent delivery by that point): 'your delivery will be there between 11:45 and 15:45'. Great, thought I: another day sterilised. Well, they were both right. The fridge-freezer arrived at 12:35, but damaged. They could have seen it before they removed the clear plastic packaging. They made it half-way to the door, at which point I said 'damaged - back you go'. Had the damage been on the side that didn't show, I'd have haggled a hefty price reduction. Not so, alas, so back it went, after some more or less acrimonious discussion of new delivery dates, and a reminder to pick up a lump of expanded polystyrene they'd left lying on the roadway. I feel sorry for the fellows who are at the customer-facing end of the mediocre consumer transaction, but they hardly covered themselves in glory.
Gracious provider of pension, on the other hand, seems to be improving the internet service: after some fiddling at the local exchange, downstream speed is almost half as fast again as last time it was tested, so maybe we're winning. But I still have a kitchen full of displaced fridge and freezer. Veteran blog readers will recall the fun when I was buying a fridge-freezer for the 2004 kitchen rebuild at Smith Towers. Looks like being a similar experience.
Monday, 8 February 2010
8 February
And 'twas on the Monday morning that the phoneman came to call. It turns out that there's nothing the matter with the socket in the house: the fellow who came today says the fault is in the wiring to the house. Should be fun: it runs underground. We'll hear from the outside wiring people within 48 hours, evidently. So it looks as if we may have sacked our old ISP because of a fault that wasn't theirs. Still, they were pretty hellish to deal with, and BT has been altogether more responsive. We just want some results now, please!
We treated ourselves to lunch out on Friday - fish and chips at the Crown, Groombridge. On the way home, we stopped at our local farm shop, since as we drove past on the way out, Martyn had spotted some leeks there with plenty of green on them. (I don't get this tendency to chop off the tops before they go on the shelves. Guess it must be about uniformity of appearance, or packaging, or some other irrelevance foisted on us by the Great Supermarket Plot.) Anyway, while we were there, I saw that they still had some Seville oranges. So, we now have a freezer full of little containers of soup, and a healthy batch of home-made marmalade in the cupboard.
Oh, and it is snowing. Again.
We treated ourselves to lunch out on Friday - fish and chips at the Crown, Groombridge. On the way home, we stopped at our local farm shop, since as we drove past on the way out, Martyn had spotted some leeks there with plenty of green on them. (I don't get this tendency to chop off the tops before they go on the shelves. Guess it must be about uniformity of appearance, or packaging, or some other irrelevance foisted on us by the Great Supermarket Plot.) Anyway, while we were there, I saw that they still had some Seville oranges. So, we now have a freezer full of little containers of soup, and a healthy batch of home-made marmalade in the cupboard.
Oh, and it is snowing. Again.
Friday, 5 February 2010
5 February
DHL, in the shape of yet another polite young Latvian or Lithuanian, has finally collected our duff projector to take it for repair. I spent a bit of yesterday afternoon making sure that Martyn's projector and my laptop worked properly together. Perfect - phew! Then when I got to the Women's Institute gathering in the evening, not a sign of communication between the two. It was some comfort that the WI was also distracted by technology problems of its own: the plumbing to the tea urn was refusing to deliver, and ladies were climbing on chairs with bowls of water to fill it up. With the information technology, I adopted the engineering approach: press every tit in sight, and only if that fails, RTFM (read the manual). This normally fail-safe technique eventually worked, so red faces temporary only. And the tea was fine too. The talk went OK, I think. We normally give a short presentation of facts and figures about the Magistracy, then get the audience to work through a little case study, arriving at a verdict in a shoplifting case, then, once we've told them that the correct answer is 'Guilty', going on to sentence. This time, at a colleague's suggestion, I put the presentation in the middle, using the trial part of the case study as the ice breaker. Resident Educational Consultant tells me it is sound practice to alternate the doing and the listening, and I think I'll try it again. I may have an opportunity: a visitor from another WI demanded my contact data.
Art class was a little less frustrating than last time: I built a bit more depth into my Col du Rousset piece, though I think it will find its way on to the 'for sale' list sooner than some of the others. The longer I work a piece, the less likely it is to turn out OK in the end. We're off to inspiration country in a couple of months, so maybe I'll look out for the closer landscapes that I seem to find easier and more satisfying.
Art class was a little less frustrating than last time: I built a bit more depth into my Col du Rousset piece, though I think it will find its way on to the 'for sale' list sooner than some of the others. The longer I work a piece, the less likely it is to turn out OK in the end. We're off to inspiration country in a couple of months, so maybe I'll look out for the closer landscapes that I seem to find easier and more satisfying.
Wednesday, 3 February 2010
3 February
It's bad enough when goods you buy go u/s within weeks. It's worse when you bought them on behalf of someone else, and therefore feel almost responsible for letting them down. It's worse still that you have to spend ages on premium rate lines to service desks in the Philippines, answering each question three times over, to get them to accept that the contraption is faulty. (It's a projector for Magistrates in the Community presentations.)
Then add the fun bit: getting DHL to collect the bloody thing to take it for repair. We stayed home yesterday in a relay, since the best DHL could offer was a pick-up between 09:00 and 17:00. They failed to appear, of course. When I called some time after 5, they said the collection was still 'live'. When life remained indiscernible this morning, I called again, to be told that the driver had called at 20:15 to learn that there was nothing to be picked up. Inefficiency I can handle, almost, though when it's compounded by a truly mediocre call centre system, Deutsche Post and altogether, it's surprising. But downright lies I find altogether harder to deal with. They're briefed to collect tomorrow between 12:30 and 17:00. WTS.
Ah, well, comfort is not far away: four loads of laundry to keep me happy and smiling, grey skies and intermittent drizzle. But I did see a wren in the garden just now, and a song thrush earlier, so all things considered, la vita é bella. Discuss.
Then add the fun bit: getting DHL to collect the bloody thing to take it for repair. We stayed home yesterday in a relay, since the best DHL could offer was a pick-up between 09:00 and 17:00. They failed to appear, of course. When I called some time after 5, they said the collection was still 'live'. When life remained indiscernible this morning, I called again, to be told that the driver had called at 20:15 to learn that there was nothing to be picked up. Inefficiency I can handle, almost, though when it's compounded by a truly mediocre call centre system, Deutsche Post and altogether, it's surprising. But downright lies I find altogether harder to deal with. They're briefed to collect tomorrow between 12:30 and 17:00. WTS.
Ah, well, comfort is not far away: four loads of laundry to keep me happy and smiling, grey skies and intermittent drizzle. But I did see a wren in the garden just now, and a song thrush earlier, so all things considered, la vita é bella. Discuss.
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
2 February
Another month, another pension transfer in the bank. Since we changed our internet service provision back to the provider of the pension, we have had at best patchy service, and numerous lengthy conversations with polite young men in BT's Mumbai call centre. The saleswoman in Newcastle who took the order said she could see a 3.5Mb/s throughput. The nice young man who tested it today saw 1.3. Hmmm. He's sending a techy to check things out here next Monday, so we'll see what that reveals. We ought in due course to get faster service when respected and benevolent pension provider gets it arse in gear and brings fibre to a nearby cabinet. It's worrying that the average Korean customer gets much faster internet service than we do in the 'developed' world. Problem is that our 'development' in telecommunications is based on 1930s infrastructure, whereas later adopters have moved to better technologies from the outset.
Noteworthy, maybe, that investment in communications technology in the 'developing' world has been strategic. Hereabouts, the Thatcher aberration saw BT as marginally less despicable than the National Union of Miners, and threw what I used to call 'us' to the white-socked barrow-boy gamblers of the City of London: yes, the same bunch that brought the UK's banks to their knees. New dictionary definition of 'long-term': the unexpired period remaining till the next general election.
A positive experience this morning - I'm mentoring a school team for the Mock Trials Competition, and showed them a couple of courts working today. They were very patient when I inflicted a DVLA court on them, and really enjoyed a Crown Prosecution Service court. Since most of the yewf I come into contact with tend to be in the front row of Court N°1 rather than the gallery, it was nice to spend a while with some sharp, interested young minds.
Noteworthy, maybe, that investment in communications technology in the 'developing' world has been strategic. Hereabouts, the Thatcher aberration saw BT as marginally less despicable than the National Union of Miners, and threw what I used to call 'us' to the white-socked barrow-boy gamblers of the City of London: yes, the same bunch that brought the UK's banks to their knees. New dictionary definition of 'long-term': the unexpired period remaining till the next general election.
A positive experience this morning - I'm mentoring a school team for the Mock Trials Competition, and showed them a couple of courts working today. They were very patient when I inflicted a DVLA court on them, and really enjoyed a Crown Prosecution Service court. Since most of the yewf I come into contact with tend to be in the front row of Court N°1 rather than the gallery, it was nice to spend a while with some sharp, interested young minds.
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