The Sturdy Soapbox

Another little visitor

Starting to need air traffic control out on my balcony. Most of the visitors are Starlings which congregate in the big tree opposite, but occasionally these little guys get a look in. Some sort of tit or finch.

Ducks fleeced me for my Warburtons this morning. I took it down there because the temperature was in minus figures, the lake was partly frozen and I knew they would be hungry.

Maybe I could get a European grant?

Not as routine as I hoped

I was a bit twitched after my visit to hospital yesterday. It was to discuss the results of my last CT scan and I hoped that not only would my right kidney be cancer free (as it was), but the stone in my left kidney would be gone. It wasn't.

There's 14mm of it left in the lower pole. A place which doesn't respond to lithotripsy, so the alternatived are a laser pushed up a place I would rather not have anything pushed or more surgery.

Also the doctor mentioned nodules on my lungs. He's not concerned at the moment, but says he will be keeping an eye on them. Unusually, I am being called back for another CT scan in six months rather than the annual check, which worries me a little.

I really hoped I would be over all the surgery and I'm not thrilled by the prospect of more.

On a brighter note, I managed to turn that Amex cheque into cash in Birmingham, so feeling a bit low when I got back to Walsall, I used some of it to treat myself to some chilli, ginger and soy salmon from Marks and Spencer and I copped lucky with some chilli and coriander noodles reduced to 80p. 

Adding a few petits pois into the bargain, here's what I had to cheer myself up. Sent this picture to the welder to wind him up, but speaking to him later, Pat had fed him on smokey barbecue chicken so he was oinking and happy.

OBC took pity on me with my news from hospital and dropped round with a bottle of very drinkable Prosecco, so I was lording it up a bit last night. Bit guilty going over my calories as I'd an appointment with the dietician this morning, but I was delighted  to find that fully clothed I was 123.3 kilos only 1.3 kilos heavier than I was at my Christmas deadline.  I am back on the straight and narrow again today, didn't bother with brekky as I was out most of the morning and had 500 calories for lunch.

Chatting with the dietician, I told her some of the calorie saving techniques I use and she was interested in my roast potatoes which I par boil and then squirt a little of that spray oil which gives an excellent result. That squirt oil is 1 calorie a squirt and is brilliant for spraying in the Yorky pudding dish before you put the mixture in.

Well, after almost three weeks in place, the birds are now wise to the bird feeder on the balcony and are going mad for it. I've had Starlings, and some sort of tits or finches out there. Now we have temperatures of up to minus 7 they will need all the food they can get.

Yes I know, feeding them here, feeding the ducks and geese in the arboretum, I'm a proper Dr. Doolittle. 

Though I have a piece of salmon left, I won't be having that today, but I will be finishing the noodles, they are rather nice. Wonder what the Welder's having?

Customer service, it's a myth

I despair !

Over the past couple of weeks, I have wasted time and money on phone calls trying to sort out silly little problems and getting little to no help from these so called highly trained professional customer care departments.

Firstly, my Galaxy phone is on the blink. The micro USB port isn't working properly. It's a common problem and one that Samsung appears to be wriggling out of by getting their service agents to declare the phone has been water damaged.

Until an hour ago, I considered my phone to be just out of warranty as I got it in October 2011. I now learn they carry a 2 year warranty, but considering the paragraph above I am not optimistic.

My Samsung stuff is registered on their site, date of purchase, serial number etc. I logged the problem in this secure area that you have to sign in to and awaited a reply. Reply was waiting next day. Clicked the link to open and read and a box came up that said "please log in", but I was logged in. Can't access the reply, site loops back to their welcome page.

I wrote to Samsung three times, twice from the secure area and once via general enquiries asking for a cut and paste of the reply to be sent to my e mail address. Nothing !

Having had a really shitty day which began falling in the slush at 7:45 this morning, I decided to ring Samsung this afternoon. Their agents are very good, but like every other customer department, they are just reading from a script. This one kept putting me on hold and as these 0845 calls aren't free from either my landline or my mobile, the bill was racking up.

After God knows how long verifying my address and phone number, she's arranging for the phone to go back to a service centre for inspection.

I can see where this is going. They will say it's water damaged and I will throw Teddy out the pram and my phone will be away for a week before coming back unrepaired.

So come back and read about how I fare in a week or so.

Jan 7th, I made the decision to change my broadband provider. Sky who I am with, put their line rental up a while back and whilst I have no complaints about the service, I do need to cut my outgoings wherever possible.

Tesco were offering a deal where I could do just that by 9 pounds a month (for a year) and get a wireless N router and a thirty pound gift card into the bargain. Impetuously, I signed up online.

Later that evening, I read some of the consumer reviews on Tesco broadband and if I read a hundred (and I probably did), only two were positive.  I voiced my concern with Tesco who took 2 days to respond and did not give me any reassurance whatsoever.

I decided to stick with the order. The online portal gives a big friendly timeline graphic which showed a go live date of next Tuesday. In between time, the welcome pack, N ype wireless mo down would come in the post.

My last correspondence asked what the billing date would be and when would they take first payment. I asked this because over here at least, you pay your phone line up front and your calls in arrears and on my meagre bugdet, I have to prepare.

These responses take 2 days apiece and this morning's arrived as I got home from my wallow in the slush so I was already in a bad mood.

Very coldly it announced "sorry no one told you, but this order was discarded on the 8th".

It gave me a number to call for more details. I called and there weren't any.

I had no confidence in the girl's promise to call me back when she identified the reason my order had been ditched. They NEVER call back, believe me.

I went into the newly created account portal and clicked on "raise ticket" - typed a polite request as to why had my order been cancelled and why did no one tell me. Clicked send only to receive "this site is undergoing maintenance you message has not been sent".

At the moment, Tesco are a dirty word with me.

I currently have a letter of complaint in with N Power who sent me a letter telling me they needed to increase my monthly payment for electricity from fifty pounds to ninety two !

I always take into account the fact that I put one storage rad on in the winter months and last year when I'd finsihed paying those jackals at the water company, I voluntarily increased my monthly payment by twenty pounds. I came out of the winter months thirty six pounds in credit.

We know the vicious bastards have hiked energy prices, but I don't think it's doubled in price yet.

I put in my letter that this is a small flat in Walsall using one storage radiator, not Downton Abbey, but I reckon the humour and my power consumption comments will be wasted on them - two weeks, no reply.

Channie sent me an American Express gift cheque for Christmas which by all accounts is like a travellers cheque. Take it to an Amex agent or partner and they will convert it to pounds and give you the cash.

Started off with my bank on the phone, they'd never heard of this type of cheque, suggested I take it to a branch (another fob off). Branch had never seen one.

Went to the currency exchange at our main post office. Given a story that wouldn't have been out of place on Jackanory, a month's wait to convert it and a hefty fee too, but they wouldn't do it.

I told Channie who was obviously upset that something sent me as a Christmas present wasn't going to be after all.  She spent time on the phone in New York with Amex who were dismayed that this apparently common form of currency wasn't being recognised in a country like ours with our running water, radio and mains (92 pounds a month) electricity.

I too spoke with some very nice people at Amex who sent me to Thomas Cook, Lloyds TSB (who were downright rude) and again, the post office.

After waiting twenty minutes in the post office while they followed the instructions relayed via me from Amex, the manager came out and announced that despite what Amex say, they stopped cashing these things in 2011.

I'm off to hospital in Birmingham tomorrow and will be starting my Amex quest all over again on my way, stopping off in the city that never shits. I've identified an Amex agent rather than a preferred partner and we shall see if that gets me any further than a kind word and a passport got me all over Walsall.

I'm not holding my breath on that, Tesco or any sensible response from N Power either and as for the phone, I fear I may be replacing the USB port ribbon myself (which thrills me not).

 

Such a happy little welder

He's off out tonight in his Where's Wally socks, but this morning he came and collected me and off we went to sort out his new laptop.

Pat called me the other day and said he was a bit down, because he couldn't do much with it. 

This is what you get with new puters, lots of rubbish bundles on there but nothing of substance.

Priority was sort him his picture handling, so put Paintshop pro on and Faststone viewer. Then I amazed him with Android Sync Manager which you put on the puter and on the new smartphone he got for Christmas. Type in a link ID number to match the phone to the program and you automativally synch the pictures and movies on the phone to the laptop wirelessly. I could see he was impressed.

Then I got him to plug the new HDMI lead we got him for Christmas which I sent to Pat as something for her work, but he was suspicious and did the twenty questions. Told him to STFU in the end.  Today, he plugged it into this monster flat telly they've got, then we plugged the laptop into the other end. Then we played some movies in HD through the posh telly.

Welder now wetting himself with excitement.

Then I showed him Google Play store (where you get all your Android apps from).

I think he'll be under the bedclothes tonight with a torch, good job it's not a school night.

Blisteringly fast Samsung laptop he's got. 6 Gb of RAM and a 750 Gb hard drive.

Then, using my Samsung Galaxy, I pulled up my Western Digital app and showed him content that's sitting on the network hard drive in my hallway. That really impressed him.

Pat's at work. She's going to have to sit through all that when she gets home. "Look what this does Pat" and "wait til I show you this".

I'm sure she'll be excited too. What do you think ?

PS - I've only had him on three times since I started writing this post !

Had a woofy visitor

No, not the welder...

Roger the English Bull Terrier and a very nice doggie he is too.

We had a very nice time with wine, pork pie, pork sandwiches and bacon flavour Pom bears.

Yes, the elf costume had an outing again. Note who got the plate of food again !

Didn't do a roast today as I will be having one on Tuesday. I had some leftover curry from Friday in the fridge. One was marked chicken curry, mostly gravy. I've frozen the leftover saag sauce and decided to pull that out and put some potatoes in. Opened the chicken curry to find it was  lamb Madras and lots of meat. I'm certainly not complaining, it made a lovely lunch.

Not touching alcohol today, I cut back on the beer after having wine with Welder and Pat so I would be up for my walk this morning. When I got up, it was so horrible outside, I passed on that.

Welder gave me some more lights which I've put round the fireplace and they've really made that feature. 

Proper little Santa's grotto I have here don't ya think ?

The concert in the park

 

Cobbled this together this afternoon from the clips I shot at the Christmas concert yesterday.

 

Welder's got some new toys

Had a desperate text from Pat this morning "He's driving me mad", meaning the Welder.

I had to yield to defeat over his laptop which I spent hours working on only to have it constantly blue screen afterwards.

He's been like a lost puppy with no puter to play with and I can now reveal that when the laptop started playing up, Pat called me to ask advice on specs of new laptops as she was planning to get him a new one for Christmas.

At the time she mentioned she would probably have to give it him before the holiday and today she finally cracked under pressure and literally let him have it.

Look at his little face...  When I had him on the phone earlier telling me how Santa had been, I could hear the excitement in his voice. He's been given a new Samsung smartphone too. He'll have nothing to open on the big day at this rate.

So he's a happy little welder again, bless...

Busy weekend

Went up to see Bob the Butcher yesterday as usual.

He'd got pheasants hanging in the window which was unusual, as you have to be licenced to deal in game.  "They ay for sale, just for show" he said. Then offered me a couple.

I'm not a game bird meself, but I know someone who is. OBC, so Bob's holding two back for ode un to collect.

I think the news of a couple of free pheasants made OBC's morning.

Lunchtime, I walked down to the arboretum and met up with Darlo for the free Christmas concert in the park. Managed to meet up with a lady I know from Twitter who works for the council and was one of the team responsible for the concert.

It took place at the newly renovated bandstand and was absolutely knockout. There was free mulled wine and mince pies and the whole thing was really well organised, even the ducks on the lake were bopping to I wish it could be Christmas every day.

After the concert I walked home badly in need of a hot drink as it was a bit chilly to be standing about outside. Then it was off to Darlo's for a nice meal and an awful lot of drink.

Had a late night and when I got up for a pee about half six this morning I knew I'd been on the grog. Passed on my walk and went back to bed.  Not hung over today, but my brains are mush, can't stay focused on anything. 

Darlo just popped by to bring my camera tripod I left behind. She's got a thumper of a headache coming so is electing when she gets home, to retire to bed with a bottle of red wine.

I don't have any wine and am still guilty at my calorific excess from yesterday's lovely chilli, Cornish clotted cream ice cream and profiteroles and beer and Cava and red wine !

If I can stay focused, I am going to pull off the movie files from the concert and see what I can do with them. That's a big if mind you...

A busy but pleasant week

Well, apart from Monday when I had really bad shits from the early hours onwards...

Thursday I'd got Darlo coming round for our Christmas brekky. I'd been decorating the place up a bit at a time, but making rather slow progress so, ended up putting lights up in the hall ay 6:30am, I'd been in Tesco at 5:45 and managed to forget half the stuff I went for due to a non functioning brain at that time of the morning.

I won't be leaving those LED lights in the hall, rather than look festive, it looks like a set from Blake's 7.

Now my clips have come in the post, I can cosmetically integrate them to the window in the drawing room like I did last year, then e mail Lee who lives up at the flour mills to see if he can see them.

My lights are somewhat insignificant compared to some of the amazing displays on our estate, even in this block. One chavvy habit I heartily approve of. If I had more money, I'd be a complete embarrassment to family and friends as the flat and balcony would be visible from space, I can be a proper gypo sometimes...

Our brekky was lovely. OBC donated a pack of Maynards Staffordshire Black, a smoked bacon which is cured in molasses. This is top end bacon, even been featured on Rick Stein's Food Heroes.

I'd bought big pork and leek sausages from Bob the Butcher, these too were lovely, I've not had sausages for weeks seeing how I have been cutting calories (and fat) to the minimum.

Scrambled eggs, baked beans, toast, coffee and fruit smoothies made up the meal and I made an effort with the table adornment even lighting an orange flavoured candle.

As you can see, someone beat Darlo to the table and no, it's not Wally the Welder in a red suit though I wouldn't put that past him.

Darlo bought me some decorations sent by her mum, some really nice swag in there, shall be putting up some more over the weekend.

Thursday I was over the Welder's office sorting out his puter. This time it was just a hijacked browser, well both of them. Didn't take too long to sort.

At one point, who should amble im but the Growler. Don't see or hear from him from one year to the next, never replies to texts, so I had a bit of a growl myself, but he still yielded and put a hat on for a picture.

Then we had a pint up the pub and I got all three of em, Welder, Growler and Keith "secret Santa", Wally's brother.

Despite the beer and brekky I have maintained the walking, was out at 7 this morning. Arboretum was open though it was still dark and there wasn't a duck in sight. Left half a loaf of Warburton's and continued on my way. When I came back about 45 minutes later is was almost light and the pieces of bread were still there.

Got a Christmas flowering Cactus from Lidl and some other nice things which are either now at the back of the freezer or in cupboards (out of sight out of mind).

I am not buying any ice cream until at least next Friday or Saturday, as that's the very worst to resist. Haven't even given a thought as to what sort I shall get (does Homer Simpson / Wally the Welder drool).

 

 

Appeal for the ducks

This is an urgent appeal for anyone who loves duck...

Sorry, can we do that again ? I think this script should read ducks plural, otherwise overtones of sauce l'orange or cherries creep in.

When I went for my walk on Sunday, I had pretty much a full loaf of Warburtons bought the day before.  I took 9 slices to the park leaving me with four. They scoffed the lot in the blink of an eye.

I was out early this morning with a trip to Asda just after 6 and it was well below zero.

I went out again for a walk round the arboretum and out of sheer kindness took a whole loaf minus three slices.

When I arrived, the lake was part frozen and n'er a duck or goose to be seen.

When I got to the other end of the lake, there's a sheltered bit where it wasn't frozen where about 200 ducks and geese were congregating and looking very sorry for themselves.

What's worse, as I stood there with a bag of Warburton's, they couldn't get across the thin ice to the edge of the lake, so I had to throw the pieces into the water. I heard one drake complaining how he hates wet bread.

Total time to demolish another loaf, about 45 seconds.

Now this is where the guilt creeps in.  On the way home, I popped in Tesco and bought this :

I do feel a twinge of guilt to be honest...