Amazon (and SE Water) bashing

Reluctant as one is to line the pockets of Mr Bezos, I have to say that the service is pretty good.  Having left it 72 hours after the failed delivery of a new monitor, I got on the phone this morning, and after the usual press this, press that and music on hold, I got to speak to a sentient being.  Not only sentient, but polite, empathetic and efficient.  He made no bones about issuing a refund, which I should see in a week or so.

An order I placed with Amazon one morning a few weeks ago arrived that same afternoon, and most stuff arrives the day after order.  It’s a shame that on-line shopping has been so damaging to the old fashioned kind: our local mall has several empty units, and when we went to London a while back, it was worrying to see row after row of shops shuttered and graffiti’d.  It’s an ill wind, of course: when I went to buy a monitor from a proper shop this week, the service was exemplary: they’re obviously trying harder.

We’ve been among the lucky minority of Disgustedville residents who have not lost their water supply.  Businesses in the town have lost tens of thousands, particularly in hospitality.  Self-employed people are also hit: on Monday alone, our cleaners lost £150 through cancellations.  Most people have now had their supply restored, but have to boil water indefinitely for cooking and tooth brushing.  When we went to our u3a computer group meeting on Wednesday, the roads were jammed with cars going to collect bottled water.  The venue had no water supply, and the planned lunch afterwards was cancelled.  

The water company, not content with sitting on its hands despite warnings over the years, has failed miserably in communicating with customers.  Our local MP has been breaking his arse filling the communication void - top marks - and has understandably called for the resignation of the head man of the water company.  He even got his boss to visit, so some collectors of bottled water had their supplies handed over by Sir Ed himself.  Meanwhile the water company continues to issue vague and conflicting announcements, and the head honcho has not made himself available for interviews.  He has been thoroughly abusive to our MP, and the minions he sends out to meet the press are becoming increasingly truculent.  Well, I suppose that’s what you get when you privatise natural monopolies.

Oh, how I love computers in these modern times!

My laptop, which is over nine years old, has been getting a bit tired.  After much agonising, I finally bought a new computer, and it was delivered a few days ago.  I should add that the DPD delivery man dumped it on the doorstep, clearly labelled HP, rang the bell without checking that anyone was home, and buggered off.  Well, it wasn’t nicked, but proved incapable of communicating with the monitor that I’d hoped to use.  So, back to Amazon to choose a new monitor.  It was supposed to arrive today, but the same  DPD driver brought someone else’s large bale of kitchen paper rolls, marked my order as delivered even though I’d told him to take it away, and once again, buggered off. 

After about an hour on the phone, first to DPD, who bumped me on to Amazon and then to the latter, I gave up and went to a local Curry’s and bought a less expensive product, which works well enough.  I’ll return to the charge two days hence, before which Amazon declines to assist.

Meanwhile, having moved the laptop upstairs, I find that it has defaulted to that abomination, the AZERTY keyboard.  Given that I’d bought it with the Swiss French QWERTZ, this is a puzzle.  I shall ask the clever guys at the u3a computer group tomorrow.  I’m getting a bit old for this shit: is it any wonder I drink?

Planned obsolence

You’ll recall that I’m a big fan of our local repair café, but there are some things they can’t fix, such, I suspect, as our kettle.  It has served us here for over 18 years (and Martyn and his Mum since 2001 to my certain knowledge), but it has taken to tripping long before it boils.  I guess it has earned its retirement: it has probably worked as long as I did.  Well, having amalgamated numerous households over the years, we have no shortage of spare kettles, so our ability to make tea (if by candlelight - see below) is unimpaired.

Less deserving is the strip light which has worked for about four years.  Fed up with the buzzing of the old fluorescent strip light, we got sparky Colin to replace it with an LED job about four years ago.  Until a week or so it worked quietly and reliably, but having flickered off and on for a while, it gave up the ghost last night.  We finally managed this morning to separate the tube from its base, and I schlepped it along to my usual suppliers, confident that they’d come up with the goods.  No match on their system for the part number, so I schlepped it back home again, and called Colin to ask where he got it.  He couldn’t remember, but gave me the names of a few factors he might have used.  The one I could raise on the phone looked it up, and came back with the answer: obsolete.  Dashed poor show, what?  So that’s for the bin, and Colin is coming to fit a complete new unit on Friday.  It may see me out….

Family day

We’re slowly getting serious about clearing out the loft, and were thinking of taking the Scalextric to the Hospice shop.  (Our days of playing on hands and knees are over!)  But then it occurred to me that the great nephews might like it.  A good excuse for a family lunch party.  Plain fare: lasagne, pizza, apple crumble and one of Martyn’s celebrated cakes! 

Here are bro John, nephew-godson Richard and great-nephews Thomas and Toby - whom we’d hardly have recognised, not having seen them for a few years.  Apologies to Anna for the rear view only, but the photo was taken stealthily!  The kids got the hang of the Scalextric pretty quickly, as did their kids!  There’s a bit more track in the box, so they’ll be able to set up a decent little circuit in their den.  It was great to see them all, though I’m reminded that entertaining is a bit like work. 

Otherwise a pretty restful week.  I’ve done a modicum of gardening, but - cooking apart - have been pretty idle.  But then, that’s why I retired.

NHS nowadays

Though our protégée has been well cared for in hospital, the experience has hardly been a delight.  Her ward was cramped - four to a room - and dingy.  Yesterday’s discharge process was reminiscent of mine two years ago, only worse.  A long wait in the ward for transfer to the discharge ‘lounge’, and another wait there for medications to arrive: though less long than I’d to wait.

The said lounge had a number of patients in beds.  Overspill?  Or maybe they were waiting to return to beds in care homes.  Another patient awaiting discharge was firmly shackled to a prison officer, with whom he seemed to be sharing a friendly repartee.  Anyway we were glad to be out of there, free tea and biscuits notwithstanding (and gladder still today to have reports of a good night’s sleep at home).  I was a little disappointed that there was no attempt to talk through the discharge letter, nor to explain the new medication regime.  Celà dit, we ought to have done that when we got her home, but were maybe too tired to think of it. 

Modern Times, Chapter 97

We sat for some hours yesterday in the Emergency Department of the main hospital of a nearby unitary authority, though not as long as the customer of their services had had to.  It took 13 hours to complete assessment and admission (with, thank goodness, a relatively minor issue that will nevertheless need some days’ monitoring).  As always, the care received, however slow, was thorough and competent, mostly at the hands of immigrant staff.  As with my experience over the past couple of years, we got to meet a lot of lovely caring people.  But.  (1)  The Brit medics with ambition bugger off to the Gulf or Australia where they are paid appropriately for their skills.  (2)  The South Asian, African, Pilipino and other immigrant medical and caring staff are attracted by higher salaries than they would earn at home, thus depriving their concitoyens of their skills.  (3)  Meanwhile, the remaining junior hospital doctors are about to go on strike again.  Get the picture?  WTF?

As for the hospital, unlike ours it has grown and sprawled over the decades, and is plainly struggling to meet demands.  The ED (of which more anon…) waiting room was full to bursting, and we three sat for hours on hard chairs in the corridor, having constantly to dodge passing beds, trolleys and wheelchairs.

Nomenclature.  What we used to know as ‘Casualty’ came for a time to be known as Accident and Emergency (A&E).  Perhaps to discourage people with cut fingers (j’y fus!) from cluttering the place up, it has been re-named Emergency Department (ED).  A visitor might wonder for a moment why such huge resources were being devoted to erectile dysfunction.

Back at the ranch, I’m allowed to drive again, which takes a bit of the load off Martyn.  It’s nice to have the independence again, though I was reminded yesterday why I try to avoid driving at night.  Fortunately, the roads were dry.  I used to dread returning from a tiring day at the hobby after dark along busy, winding wet roads, dazzled by oncoming traffic.

The leaves have been falling for a while now, so - to put a positive slant on matters - we are starting to enjoy the coloured bark of the cornus shrubs.  The magnolia stellata is budding up nicely, and the little cyclamens are flowering fit to bust.  Our rather confused cistus pulverulens bloomed yesterday, and we have quite a lot of antirrhinum flowers - all self-sown.  It’s almost time to chop down the sedums and hellebores.  We still have a lot of pansies and bulbs to plant in the pots on the terrace, so are hoping for fine weather tomorrow.

Good idea. Hmm.

It occurred to me a while go that my watch strap could do with a wash.  It’s a woven stainless steel job, and had got rather darker over time.  Well, I detached it and soaked it in kitchen degreaser for an hour or two, which resulted in something resembling ox-tail soup.  Rinsed in fresh water, it was still looking manky, so I soaked it again overnight in the same product, and came down this morning to an equally unedifying spectacle.  

Talking of cleansing, it’s good to see that the establishment is taking some modest steps to clean up the royal family.  It would be nice to think that this process would lead to some decent results.  It would also be nice to think that the manifest opposition to a certain orange tyrant might bring him down, or at least under democratic control.