The caravan survived the winter and is up and running, although we beat a hasty retreat back to Cotswold Towers on Sunday morning as it was so cold and windy.
This week has been quite eventful so far.
On Tuesday the planned “seamless” switchover from Sky and BT to Virgin Media was completed with one major problem. Although we were assured that there was no need for us to contact BT to cancel and retain our phone number as this would all be handled by Virgin Media staff, we were left with a new exchange and number. Not only that, the BT service had not been cancelled so we now have another 30 days line rental and broadband charge to pay!
We are NOT amused. I have, of course, already opened negotiations with Virgin Media re compensation but loosing the phone number that we have had for 43 years is like losing a good friend.
With the change of the broadband and WiFi router location I took the opportunity to totally reorganise my office and clear out 25 years worth of old equipment and cables, a task that was long overdue.
See photo below featuring my backup laptop.
Well, having spent most of the day sorting things out and after refitting a shelf, I was finally able to sit down and admire the new setup and check my email. I noticed that I had forgotten to throw out two old Windows and Frontpage manuals so I removed them from the shelf which immediately crashed down on top of my new Samsung laptop smashing the screen!!
Hey bloody Ho! - a fitting end to a far from perfect day!
You have to admire the Bradshaws from Westerham in Kent, who are on a mission to buy only British for a 12 month period. The have already found out that there are no light bulbs or batteries manufactured in the UK.
Visit their site at http://britishfamily.co.uk
Whilst on holiday I completed the 5th book in Robert Rankins Brentford Trilogy – “The Brentford Chainstore Massacre”, reviewed by the Observer as:
“STARK RAVING GENIUS … ALARMING AND DEFORMED BRILLIANCE”
These books just get better! Here’s an extract:
‘What blood type are you?’ asked Dr Steven Malone.
‘AB negative,’ said Jack. ‘I used to bleed a lot as a child.’
‘Nosebleeds?’ Dr Steven asked.
‘No, the top of my head.’
‘How unusual.’
‘Not really. My brother wanted to be a musician.’
‘I don’t think I quite follow you.’
‘He wanted to play the xylophone, but my dad couldn’t afford one, so my brother, my older brother, used to line up all us younger brothers in descending order of height, then go round behind us and strike each of us on the top of the head with a tent peg mallet. A sort of human xylophone, you see. He could do almost the entire Lennon and McCartney song book. I was Middle C. I used to suffer a lot from concussion.’
‘Does your brother play the xylophone now?’
‘In Broadmoor, yes’
Meanwhile, in the real world, another great musician and personality passed away last week:
I can remember buying those singles in the early sixties – Samantha, Midnight in Moscow, The Green Leaves of Summer, Rondo etc. In fact, I still have them and they were part of what fell on my laptop on Tuesday!
I’ll leave you with one more memory:
Kenny Ball RIP
