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Getting distinctly annoyed

It’s four weeks since my new bed was allegedly “three weeks away”, and there’s still no sign of it. I phoned the furniture shop this afternoon, and asked them for an update. They phoned back half an hour later, having been on the phone to the supplier, saying that it was apparently another four weeks away, and there were no guarantees that even that would be honoured. I was not impressed, and made sure that was audible in my voice. The salesman said that they’ve just started stocking a new range of wooden beds, and suggested that I might change my order to one of those. I have agreed to go into the showroom tomorrow to have a look – and will make sure they are aware of my displeasure at being messed around for so long.

UPDATE: I went back to the furniture shop on Saturday morning. They were expecting me, and immediately handed me a catalogue from the new range they’ve recently started stocking. I chose an oak bedframe that is slightly less modern-looking than my previous choice, so should fit in better with this Victorian cottage. It was also cheaper, and I’ve been promised it’s on a two-week delivery. I’ll see how accurate that estimate is……

14 03 2014 icyjumbo house
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Another knitting project

Seeing that I’ve started knitting again, my mother sent me a kit which she thought would keep me amused for a few evenings. “Amused” turned out not to be the right word, though it has certainly kept me busy every evening last week, and all this weekend. It’s a kit for a toy dog, and claimed it came complete with everything needed except the stuffing. There were two balls of chenille effect yarn, knitting needles, a darning needle, thread, safety eyes, ribbon, fleece and instructions.

The “fleece” turned out to be brown felt; the knitting needles were cheap, nasty and far too flexible; the darning needle had too small an eye to fit the yarn; and the chenille yarn was an absolute pig to knit with. It is lovely and soft, but has absolutely no give in it whatsoever, and was so fluffy it was hard to see what I was doing. The instructions were riddled with errors and typos, and I’m sure that no one actually tried to knit the creature from the written details! There also wasn’t enough yarn provided to knit the dog as depicted in the picture – I had to make his last paw piebald as there wasn’t enough of either colour to complete it!

After a week of chunnering, this is what I was confronted with on Friday evening:

A load of knitted shapes - nineteen of the dratted things, no two identical

The small pathetic pile of yarn in the top centre of the image is the total remaining when I’d knitted all nineteen pieces. Talk about cutting it fine! I then had to sew it all together to make an approximation of the dog in the picture. That also wan’t easy – the instructions were incomplete, confusing and is some places plain incorrect! I sewed the front legs on back to front the first time round, and had to unpick them and try again! The instructions rather bravely provided the phone number of the woman who designed the kit, in case one needed help, and I was very tempted to phone it to tell her exactly what I thought of the instructions! In the end I muddled through, and ended up with a stuffed toy that looks nearly, but not quite, totally unlike the one in the picture!

A rather surprised and daft looking dog

 

09 03 2014 Gillian photograph Comments Off on Another knitting project Permalink

Dinner out with the bid team

Way back last autumn, September I think, I was involved in writing a rather large and complicated bid at work. It was very challenging – on the edge of my technical field, with lots of political considerations, a complicated marking scheme, and tight deadlines for completion. Anyway, well before Christmas we first heard that we were the preferred bidder, and then got on contract. This week the Big Boss took the bid team out for dinner as a thank you. There were about a dozen of us, and we went to the Ask restaurant in the centre of Malvern. It’s just a pizza-and-pasta joint, part of a chain, but good of its kind. The food is reliable, and sometimes rather good.

I am working pretty hard at the moment, as it’s end-of-year-itis and I’ve so much project work ongoing, as well as writing yet another bid, that I’m doing a fair amount of overtime each week. In fact one of the projects that’s causing me the most stress at the moment is a task under this new contract. I didn’t really want to go out in the evening, as I was pretty tired and had a headache coming on. But I forced myself to go, and actually enjoyed myself much more than I was expecting to.

We all had to pre-order our meal a week in advance, as there were so many of us. That was quite difficult – trying to think ahead to what one might feel in the mood for eating the following week. I’m not normally that organised! In the end I ordered a tomato, rocket and mozzarella salad to start with, followed by a pizza fiorentina. I thought that would be enough, so I didn’t pre-order a pudding, and indeed I didn’t manage to finish the whole pizza. The waitress offered me a doggy bag to take the uneaten half home, so that was helpful. Everyone else though had ordered a pudding, so I succumbed to temptation and had a slice of almond and plum tart, which was actually the best part of the meal. And it wasn’t even mine! It had been preordered by one of our senior project managers, who had had to drop out of the dinner at the last moment, so I ate her pudding. It would have been a shame to waste it! In fact, my boss even took a photo of it (and my clean plate afterwards!) on his mobile to send to her and show her what she was missing! Funny how, even when I think I’m full, I manage to find room for dessert…….

All in all I thought it was very good of the Big Boss to invite us all out for dinner. He must eat out a great deal on business, and yet he gave up an evening to say thank you to us, and made sure that the whole team, from the technical specialists to the assistant project managers, were invited. We had to work hard together as a team to deliver the bid, and it was nice to be thanked as a team. It won’t have been a particularly expensive gesture for him, but we all appreciated it.

07 03 2014 icyjumbo Day out
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Bedsocks

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I’ve started knitting again. I can’t do too much at a time as it hurts my wrist – I’m having to be very careful not to exacerbate my RSI. However, today I finished a pair of bedsocks -the first things I’ve knitted since Chris died.

A pair of stripy bedsocks

With hindsight, it would have been better if I’d tried to anticipate the repeat in the variegated yarn to try to get the stripes to line up on the two socks. But, since they’re destined to be bedsocks, nobody is going to see them but me, and I quite like the random mismatch.

02 03 2014 Gillian photograph Comments (4) Permalink

Once more unto the breach……

I would have thought that after three and a half years, all the companies that Christopher dealt with would have got the message that he is dead. But apparently not. I waded into battle with unfeeling and impersonal “Customer Services” once more yesterday afternoon.

This time it was Orange, who sent Christopher a letter about price changes to his mobile phone account. I went back to my Probate records, and found that I’d spoken to Orange in September 2010, and sent them a copy of the Death Certificate. I found a phone number to call, and then had a rather bizarre conversation with someone I suspect was in India, trying to get him to understand that Christopher doesn’t have much need for a mobile phone these days, and I’d be very surprised if he made any calls because he is dead! Moreover, I’d told them that rather pertinent fact years ago, so what did they think they were doing writing to him? They had my details and at the very least they should have written to me!

By the time I had hammered home the point several times, I think the customer service flunky finally got the message that I was seriously annoyed and rather upset. He promised that they would completely close the account – which they should have done at the first time of asking in 2010.

It continues to surprise me just how incompetent and insensitive “Customer Services” are in almost all of the companies I’ve had to deal with (with the honourable exception of the Life Assurance company, but after all death is their core business). It’s not so bad for me – I can be assertive and make a fuss. But it must be really upsetting and painful for widows who aren’t such a stroppy cow as I am!

27 02 2014 icyjumbo invective Comments (2) Permalink

Snowdrops

It’s been an extremely wet winter, but a very mild one. My lawn (or rather, area of moss and daisies) is absolutely sodden, but at least the mole has kept away. With a bit of luck, it’s drowned! I’ve not been snowed in, nor had to dig myself out, all winter. There’s time yet of course for all that to change – there’s a family saying that “It’s been known to snow on Father’s birthday”, which is mid-May. But the snowdrops in my flowerbeds seem to have really appreciated the mild winter, as they’ve put on an exceptionally good display this year.

My brother-in-law went out with his camera on Saturday morning and took a few photos of the snowdrops, which he is happy for me to share. I’ve got clumps of both single and double snowdrops, and the wall underneath my apple trees is looking particularly good I think.

Underneath the apple trees

Double flowers - in the sunshine!

A mixture of snowdrops

25 02 2014 Gillian garden
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Christmas part II

My sister and her husband have been visiting me for the weekend, and brought with them those Christmas presents that I couldn’t (and in one case, wouldn’t) carry home on the train.  As a family, we don’t really “do” Christmas, mostly buying each other games, puzzles and other non-serious gifts. I was pleased to be re-united with a number of model-making kits which will keep me busy on a wet Sunday afternoon – including a working trebuchet which looks fun.

My brother-in-law demonstrating the use of an Easter Island Head tissue box holder.......

The main reason they came up to Malvern though was to make sure I took custody of their Christmas present to me – a tissue box holder in the shape of an Easter Island moai. It’s made of stone and resin, and looks indestructible enough to survive a thermonuclear explosion. I’d claimed I couldn’t possibly carry it back on the train at New Year, but trust them not to forget to bring it with them this weekend.  It looks like the statue has got a cocaine addiction and his nose keeps running all the time. As my sister said, it was just as well they had pre-filled it with a box of white tissues, as it would be even more tasteless with a multi-coloured tissue box forming rainbow snot! Now I’ve got to find somewhere to put it – and if that’s the back of a dark cupboard, I’ll have to remember to bring it out again every time they visit!

23 02 2014 Gillian photograph Comments (3) Permalink

Another side effect of the weather

I ordered a new bed five weeks ago, on an estimated four week delivery schedule. But I’ve heard nothing since, so I called the furniture shop on Saturday to ask what’s going on, and was told that the new mattress has arrived in their store room, but there was no sign of the bed frame. I asked them to chase it up and let me know what’s going on, and got home from work this afternoon to find a voicemail asking me to call them back, which didn’t sound like good news. Apparently, my bed is still three weeks away – it’s stuck on a ship that has been confined to port because of the storms. Annoying! The shop offered to supply me with my new mattress straight away, and follow up with the bed later. That would have been a helpful gesture, except that the mattress won’t fit my existing bed frame. So that’s no good. I’ll just have to put up with a lumpy and sunken mattress for a few more weeks, and hope for a break in the weather soon so that my bed can at least reach the UK.

20 02 2014 icyjumbo house Comments Off on Another side effect of the weather Permalink

The Perfect Murder

I hate Valentine’s Day. When Christopher was alive, we never bothered with it – just laughed at the over-priced cards and flowers, and the loved-up couples having excruciating “romantic” dinners for two while the restaurants made excessive profits. But now I’m widowed, I really don’t like the insistent insinuation that smug coupledom is the only acceptable way to be. I find the wall-to-wall pink in the shops extremely irksome. Even the canteen at work on Friday was selling garish pink cup cakes!

However, I think I have found an excellent antidote to Valentines Day, in the shape of The Perfect Murder, a new play by Peter James. I went to the matinée today at Malvern Theatres and found it rather fun, in a very black way. It starred Les Dennis as Victor, who has been married to Joan to twenty years, and can’t stand her any more. Everything about her gets on his nerves, and she clearly feels the same. They bicker and argue in a very nasty way, getting deep digs in at every opportunity. He’s seeing an East European prostitute on the side (who turns out to be psychic – just one of the totally unbelievable aspects of the plot line), and decides that the only way out of his unhappy marriage is to murder his wife, cash in the life insurance, and run off with the hooker.

In the meantime, his wife is also having an affair and is desperate to start a new life with her lover. Victor’s snoring, humming, and all-round unpleasantness have got too much, and she wants out. So she decides that she’s going to have to kill him. The audience is left wondering which of them is going to kill the other first, and whether/how they’ll get away with it.

The best part was when the errant wife and her lover wrapped the lifeless body of Les Dennis in black bin bags, bound it with duct tape, and dumped it in the freezer. They were pretty thorough with bagging him up, including putting a bin bag over his head. I found myself thinking that it was only the matinée, they had another performance to do today, and it’s still the beginning of the run, so I did hope that they didn’t actually suffocate him! When they were wrapping duct tape around him to keep the bin bags in place, the actors all corpsed so badly that they couldn’t get their lines out! In fact, it was surprisingly funny throughout for such a black play.

I wasn’t totally convinced by Les Dennis’s acting. He was a bit wooden, especially in the first half, with far too much declaiming his lines to the audience, and not enough subtlety of character. And at one stage I did wonder if the play was going to degenerate into a bastardised cross between Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf? and Blithe Spirit. But it picked up pace and interest, and there was a huge, Agatha Christie-esque plot twist right at the end, which I really should have seen coming – after all, I’ve read the Agatha Christie novel that it was clearly inspired by! But I won’t spoil the plot by giving away the ending.

Overall it was an enjoyable afternoon out. The theatre was virtually full, with at least five coach parties from across the West Midlands, and everybody seemed to be having a good time.

15 02 2014 icyjumbo Day out Comments Off on The Perfect Murder Permalink

Wild Weather

There was yet another major storm yesterday. The hailstorm was so intense that it set off the car alarms in the car park at work! The winds were really high, with many branches down between home and work and even some dustbin lids bowling down the road. There are floods in Worcester and Upton that are causing severe disruption – colleagues are telling tales of their journeys to work taking two hours longer than usual. Several of the bridges over the River Severn are shut, leading to long detours and very heavy traffic over the few open bridges.

I was working from home yesterday afternoon, as I’d arranged several weeks ago for the electrician to come back to fix my external security light and replace the extractor fan in my en-suite bathroom, a job left over from before Christmas. I’ve used this electrician a number of times over the past few months, and he’s always turned up on the day advertised, but never at the time promised. He also doesn’t seem to answer his mobile, so when he didn’t turn up at lunch time yesterday, I had no way of getting hold of him to see if he was on his way, or how late he expected to be. In fact, it was probably just as well that he was several hours late, as by the time he eventually arrived here the winds had abated and the rain stopped (albeit temporarily) so it was safe for him to go up a very long ladder to fix my security light. If he’d turned up when I naively expected him, the hail and torrential rain would have made it too dangerous.

However, the light got fixed, the extractor fan was replaced, and I am hoping that I won’t need an electrician again for quite a while. But another huge storm is expected tomorrow, so anything could happen. On the positive side, it will allow me to check that my leaking roof has indeed been fixed before I get the painter back next month to redecorate the ceiling.

13 02 2014 icyjumbo house Comments Off on Wild Weather Permalink