Baumatic Delivers
I have perhaps been a bit harsh on Baumatic and their cooker, but yesterday, they sent me the instruction manual in the post, having identified the cooker from the picture I sent them by e-mail.
That scores quite a few points.
Plagued by Paper
Every time you buy something in a shop, you get one or more bits of paper. Waitrose even give you a green token to vote for your local charity of choice.
With my bad hand, I hate it all and would like to be able to mark my credit card to say, that I don’t want any paper bills and that all I get is a confirming e-mail or even a text message, as that way I just read them and erase them with my delete key or button.
It would surely save paper too! And be a lot more secure!
Zopa As A Cash Flow Smoother
As I indicated in an earlier post, I’ve had a lot of expenses over the previous few weeks, mainly concerned with Christmas and moving house.
As I have invested quite a few thousand in Zopa, over a month I get about £2,000 in repayments and interest to re-invest. But this month, I’ve borrowed some of that to avoid charges and make sure payments go in on the right day. At the end of the month, I’ll put it back into Zopa or something even better.
This is not what Zopa was intended for, but it does show how there are easy ways to avoid being charged by the enormous wunch of bankers out there.
Why We Are Obese!
A woman has just admitted on Radio 5, that she starts the day with two Red Bulls and a Mars Bar.
Enough said!
Has the Banking System Failed Us This Christmas?
I don’t have any specific issues, but it did seem that all of my payments and transfers seemed to be taking a day or two longer than normal. But then it is some years since Christmas and New Year has fallen squarely on a Saturday and Sunday. As I’ve moved, I also had set up quite a few utility direct debits, so perhaps I was putting a bit more strain in than most.
So perhaps if they did fail us, it was more in the matter of communicating the strain the system would be under.
If I have a personal issue, it might be with Virgin Media, as I can’t find any trace of my payment to them in my bank account. But this morning, I woke up with no TV and broadband. It is now working properly, although they haven’t been able to transfer my number yet.
So I think, I’ll be on the phone again on Monday.
Tweeting My Way South
On the two trips to south London, I used my trusty Nokia 6310i to send messages to Twitter.
In both trips I got a story going; the first about how I’d borrowed the landlord’s dog from the pub next door for protection and in the second about travelling with an attack cat, who got rather agitated in Catford.
Today, I’ll be tweeting my way north, as I’m off to Coventry to see Ipswich Town play.
If you want to follow me, my Twitter ID is VagueShot.
New Year in the South
Last night, I went to a New Year’s party in South London. Because of the various transport options and the fact that I can’t drive, I decided to take two buses; a 21 to Lewisham and then a 75 onwards towards Croydon. If it hadn’t been New Year, but say a Sunday lunch, I’d have taken the East London Line and walked to and from the stations at both ends. But in a way, I wanted to prove that someone who has had a stroke can cope with the same problems everybody else has to deal with.
So how did I cope?
The outward run was pretty easy, as I’d done most of the journey on the 21 before. I had thought of taking the East London Line, but I wanted to be sure of the interchange for the return. I did have to wait about fifteen minutes for the 75 at Lewisham and the wait would have been improved if the bus stop had had a proper display announcing the arrival of the buses. I also got off at the wrong stop and had to walk back, but that was my mistake.
Coming home was slightly more difficult and this was mainly due to having to take the N47 to London Bridge from Lewisham rather than my intended 21. But as there was no information of any sort at Lewisham, I felt that keeping going was a better option than waiting. From London Bridge, northbound buses were thin on the ground and everything was rather crowded, so in the end I got a 43 to just past the Angel and walked home. It wasn’t the best option, but I quite like walking cities at night and always have. The trip didn’t appear to be too dangerous, with the biggest obvious danger seeming to come from police cars rushing up and down everywhere and some fairly frightening characters on the bus. But no-one bothered me in the least way at all.
So would I do the trip again on a New Year’s Eve? A lot depends if I get invited to a party again.
But I wouldn’t chose to stay as late again and would probably prefer a train or tube back most of the way.
On the other hand, why miss a good party!
So thanks to all who entertained me last night.
The Anonymous Widower 