How Not To Contact Your Phone, Broadband, Energy or Media Supplier
My Virgin Media service is terrible, so I want to cancel. As an example, I haven’t had a landline for about 10 days now. Every time I try to get through to service, I end up on hold listening to terrible music. It’s probably cost me several pounds on my mobile. In one case they tried to see me more services. If I want more crap, there are many much better places to buy it, where I get some service.
As an aside here, could my terrible Virgin service, be due to the fact that their connection cabinets round here have no doors and are open to the elements.
I didn’t have the phone number to hand, so I did the obvious and typed “Virgin Media Phone Number” into Google.
After the adverts trying to sell me more Virgin services, there are some helpful companies that can connect you. I obvious don’t want more crap, so I ignored the adverts and as the helpful companies looked a bit dubious, I read about them first.
They are call referral services with expensive numbers and cost 10p a minute from a BT Landline and considerably more from a mobile. As I’ve only got my trusty Nokia 6310i, I didn’t even think about ringing them.
Virgin Media were the fifth in the list and there were about 10 of these call referral services.
By the way the number to ring for Virgin Media is 0845 454 1111.
Brian Close on England
Brian Close made his debut for England a couple of years after I was born, so he’s seen a lot of cricket. He doesn’t rate the current England team as the greatest, but then he wouldn’t would he? They don’t contain enough Yorkshiremen for his liking I suspect.
I’ll give him this though. He played the bravest innngs I ever saw. Wikipedia describes the innings at Lords in 1963 to try to beat the West Indies like this.
Close was recalled to the England Test squad in 1963, and played his first full series of five matches, against the West Indies. His innings in the second Test at Lord’s remains his best known. When England were pressing for a last-day victory, Close took the battle to the fastest West Indian fast bowlers, Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith, daring to advance down the wicket to them. This was before body protection and helmets were in use, and time and again the ball struck Close firmly on his body. But he persevered. With no other England player but Ken Barrington scoring above 20, Close’s innings of 70 saved the game for England, and came near to winning it. Set 234 to win, England ended on 228 for 9, with Colin Cowdrey famously coming in to bat (for two balls at the non-striker’s end) with his broken arm in plaster.
Close had been dismissed going for runs to win the game, and his courage earned him many plaudits. His shirtless torso, black and blue with bruises where he had been hit, made the front pages of the newspapers the next day.
There has never been another innings like it. I don’t think that there has been any other batsmen, who would have attempted to do what he did.
Getting To And From The Race
Getting to the cycle race in London today was easy. I just took a 38 bus, got off at Cambridge Circus and then walked through to The Mall.
Not at any time, was I told that the bus was being diverted, although once I got off, I realised this was the case as it didn’t go down Shaftesbury Avenue, but meandered around Trafalgar Square and on to Victoria via Whitehall.
It was coming back that I had the problem, as no-one had any clue where I could pick up a northbound 38 towards the romantic, Clapton Pond. There was one diversion sign for the drivers, but none indicating where the stops were. To make matters worse, entry to Charing Cross station seemed impossible.
In the end I decided to go to Tottenham Court Road and get a Central Line train to Bank. I did find a 29 bus that took me part of the way and dropped me north of the station.
I thought that at Bank, I could get a bus home, but the stop was closed, with the helpful sign, that it would close from the 2nd August until further notice.
A Helpful sign on a Bus Stop
It just said go to the next stop on the route. I was lucky in that a bus arrived and the driver let me on unofficially. But what if you’d been a lost tourist told to take a bus from the stop.
Transport for London must get their signage right when they divert buses. Not everyone knows the bus network, as well as I do!
Is This A Coincidence?
Something called X-Factor starts next week. Is this why so many televisions were nicked last week?
London’s Secret Cycle Race
Today, they have held the London Surrey Cycle Classic. I went down and had a look round.
You’d have thought that it was more run for the benefit of the Great and Good, as the publicity wasn’t very extensive and it was only by chance I heard it was on. I think it was on a traffic report on BBC Radio 5 Live. And I don’t drive! I didn’t see any detailed maps in the papers and although Transport for London has a route map, times of the race were all very sketchy.
I went to The Mall and there were quite a few people there, but little information. There wasn’t even anybody selling a souvenir program!
One thing I did pick up was a lot of discontent from cycling enthusiasts. All were complaining that they didn’t get tickets for the events in the velodrome for the Olympics and the serious ones felt that the Box Hill route was wrong, as no spectators would be allowed as it’s a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The original plan was to go up to Hampstead. After all they are the London Olympics not the Surrey Olympics.
Perhaps there are two races or classes in London; the Great and Good and the Hoi-Polloi. Obviously the latter can’t be allowed to spoil the party of the former. I suspect that most of those planning the cycling for the Games live in Surrey, that haunt of Manchester United supporters.
No wonder we had some little local rioting last week!
By the way the Great and Good think that this event is so special for them, that it is not being reported on television or radio. Or at least it’s not on my cable system!
The Police Don’t Like It!
Surprise! Surprise!
The police don’t like the fact that David Cameron is calling in Bill Bratton.
I’ve met a few high ranking policemen and with one glorious exception, they were not a bunch I warmed to.
They generally want to do things their way and just be given the funding to make their own successes and failures.
I once heard a comment from someone who was selling technology to a particular Police Force. The Chief Constable said that he wanted the best system that money could buy, but he didn’t want the company to sell it to any other Force.
Surely, with Police technology and equipment, it should all be standardised, so that each force uses the same equipment, vehicles and computers for the same jobs. Some have said that the dreadful Soham murders happened because two Police Force computer systems were incompatible and couldn’t talk to each other.
Imagine what would happen if the computer systems at Barclays couldn’t talk to those at Lloyds and HSBC.
Chief Constables are always harping on about their links to the local communities and that every Force has different needs. If you believe some of the stories in the reputable Press, some of them have been behaving in the manner of rather poor dictators, led much more by the rules of the Data Protection Act and the Health and Safety Executive.
They must accept that they don’t have a monopoly of knowledge on policing in the UK.
The Man In Seat 28
The title is a direct crib from that excellent train website, www.seat61.com. Use it if you want to find out how to get anywhere by train.
I did get my sandwiches, after failing at the Angel this morning, in Liverpool Street station, and here they are laid out on the table that I didn’t have to share, as I sat in Seat 28 in Standard Class.
Marks and Spencer's Gluten Free Sandwiches
I should say that Liverpool Street now has three Marks and Spencer food stores and I got my lunch from the one in the Broadgate or western entrance.
They are certainly going to make football a lot easier for me, as now I won’t have to worry about lunch or supper. Especially as until now, Ipswich was a virtual gluten free desert. The Marks there is listed as selling gluten-free sandwiches, but I haven’t checked yet.
Seat 28, also gave a very good view of the Olympic Park, as it was on the left side going towards Ipswich. The seat also has a full window.
The Olympic Park from Seat 28
Unfortunately, if you want the best view, you’ll have to be up front with the driver. I’ve done this once and it’s the only way to travel.
I should say that the jouney home wasn’t as pleasant. I had deliberately taken a later train and I took a table seat in an almost empty carriage. But then three obese middle-aged men joined me, hemmed me in by the window and proceeded to talk loudly amongst themselves all the way to London. They talked mainly about rugby and beer. I may have interest in the first, but I certainly have no interest in the sort of beer they droned on about. I also didn’t like the way they talked about their long-suffering wives.
In the end I decanted from the train at Stratford and took the North London Line home. Perhaps, next time I don’t want to be disturbed, I’ll book First.
Today’s trip and my last one to Plymouth and Bristol illustrate that train catering is getting more and more irrelevant for many people. I haven’t bought anything except coffee, Coke or perhaps a water for months now. I either take everything with me, buy something from Marks in the station or make sure I eat well before travelling. As for example there is a Carluccio’s either in or close to St. Pancras, King’s Cross and Liverpool Street, it can’t be long before most large stations have a sensible gluten-free cafe. Most stations too have a coffee shop at least up to Starbucks standard.
I suspect that train catering will disappear completely within a few years. At the Zoo Late, you could pre-order Gordon Ramsey picnics. How long before someone does luxury picnics, that you pre-order and pick up at the station before you travel? They could even be delivered to your seat in First Class!
If you are a food supplier, the great thing about train passengers, is you get at least two goes to sell them food. Obviously, I bought my picnic today before I got on the train and I could even have bought a glass of decent wine in a plastic glass at Marks. But suppose, I’d been going to Brighton to walk on the promenade, I might have brought my lunch when I arrived. And if you’re changing trains at say Liverpool Lime Street, you could buy your food between trains.
So if you run a dedicated train catering service, you’ve got real competition!
So I think that in a few years, the food available to rail travellers will be very good and probably lightly alcoholic if you want a drink. The catering will certainly be better than that on the roads, where everything is over-priced and over-curled.
I think that some of the new trains are even prepared for the revolution. The new trains, I used to get to Cambridge a couple of weeks ago, are built with trays for laptops and/or snacks. All it needs is to make sure the litter is either taken out by the passengers or cleaned up at the end of each leg!
A Saturday Morning Routine
There are two radio programmes, I like to listen to on Saturday morning; Danny Baker and the unsporting quiz, Fighting Talk, as they appeal to my unusual sense of humour.
The trouble is that if I’m going to football, as I am today, it doesn’t really leave much time for me to get to the shops, as I have to leave by about midday to get the train.
So this morning, I got to the Angel, by bus at just after 8:30. I actually took a seventy-free, as if you sit at the back and get out of the rearmost door, it’s much easier to walk to the four shops, Carluccio’s and the physio, that I visit at the Angel.
Today, it was just Boots for some rat poison, Marks and Spencer for some gluten-free sarnies for the train and a beef Stroganoff for tonight and Waitrose for two large carriers of heavy stuff like alcohol and Coke. I went to Waitrose first and found that if I shopped immediately, could get it delivered before the start of Fighting Talk at 11:00. I think I rather caught them on the hop, but hopefully it’ll come on time. But I do have two hours of total float in my critical path, so if they come by one I’m OK.
The only problem, was that Marks didn’t have the gluten-free sandwiches, but then I’ll pass three of their shops that stock them on the way to Liverpool Street. If they don’t have any, then I shall complain. If there aren’t any, it’s probably because they are too good and all those food fadists on a gluten-free kick have snaffled them!
I was back home listening to Danny Baker by ten o’clock.
It sounds like I’ll be repeating this on Saturdays in the future.
The routine could be even better, if Carluccio’s opened at 8:00 for breakfast on Saturday, as they do in the week.
Update at 11:20 – Waitrose have just delivered, so I have plenty of time to catch the train to Ipswich, after scouring Marks for some gluten-free sandwiches.
Thinking about this post. When C and I lived near Newmarket we would go shopping early, often visit one of our horses in traing and then we’d generally be back home around eleven.
I suppose, I’m only repeating what we did together by myself. In some ways, it was easier in Suffolk, as Waitrose opened earlier. But then I had to carry the shopping from the car to the hall. Here, that is all done by the van driver from Waitrose.
Who said manners and service are dead.
Fuel Prices
After my stroke, I gave up driving and moved to a highly-insulated house in Dalston.
If you don’t like fuel costs, then move somewhere, where you don’t need a car and your house has affordable and efficient central heating.
I do all my shopping either on the Internet or by bus. I even go to IKEA on a bus and that is real fun!
Why We Should Consult Bill Bratton
It is being reported that David Cameron is to consult Bill Bratton, the former Boston, New York and Los Angeles Police Chief.
And so we should!
When you have a serious problem, you should consult with anybody who might have some serious input. Some of these might not be obvious and many will not share your views.
All of my life I have been a scientific or engineering researcher. If anybody was an expert in what I was looking at, I would seek them out and discuss my problem with them. It often paid huge dividends.
The trouble is that too many people, and especially politicians, think totally inside the box. The only reason for having boxes in thinking, is to store good ideas, that might be of use later, but are quite inappropriate at the present time.
So who else should David Cameron consult about the riots?
Let’s start with Terence Conran, Norman Foster, Danny Baker, David Attenborough, Dan Snow, Stephen Bayley, Rio Ferdinand, Jo Hussain and Joey Barton.
The Anonymous Widower 