Lois and I just got back yesterday to our new-build home in Malvern after 5 days staying with our daughter Alison in Headley, Hampshire, so what could be a better day for me to battle against those two giants of British industry and society, British Gas and National Savings.
But oh dear - the results aren't very good, I can't conceal that [Why would you want to? - Ed].
I'll start with British "Keeping bath-time flowing" Gas, or should I say British "Looking after your world" Gas. Whichever haha!
British Gas have at last admitted that they're supplying us with gas as well as electricity, but they still haven't put any meter readings on the website, either the supposedly automatically transmitted "smart meter" readings, or the two readings that I took manually and sent them online and also by phone to their helpdesk.
Those British Gas bastards !!!!!!
What a crazy world we live in!!!!
Then, while we're on the subject - how about National "Lend to defend his right to be free" Savings?
[Haven't you got any more up-to-date pictures than these? - Ed]
I've got a 3-year £3,000 growth bond from National Savings, which is going to mature in 11 days' time. I want to cash it in, but the default is to make it roll over for another 3 years. I try to instruct them online to cash it in for me, as they invite you to do. Three times the process fails after an automated service rings our landline, and I input a security code, which they say is satisfactory, after which everything goes dead. So I ring their helpdesk, which keeps me in a queue for 50 minutes before, again, just going dead on me.
Those National Savings bastards!!!!
Luckily I don't give up that easily, so I try other approaches, which all fail, admittedly. Finally, out of sheer desperation I change the phone number that they ring me on, directing the automated confirmation service to my mobile number instead of the landline, and what do you know? This time it works!
What are the chances of that happening, eh???!!!!!
Why can't they design a website that does what it claims to do, that's what I want to know!
17:30 Lois disappears into the kitchen-diner, to take part in her great-niece Molly' chair yoga class on zoom.
Lois disappears into the kitchen-diner to take part in
her great-niece Molly's chair yoga class on zoom
Molly getting down to it in her flat in Leeds
19:00 Yoga delays all our evening activities by an hour, so we have dinner at the comparatively sophisticated time of 7 pm, which must be impressing our neighbours, if they glance through our windows or are bugging our dining-area [Aren't those 2 possibilities a bit unlikely? - Ed], to put it mildly!
Before we sit down, we are treated to the display of a lovely big rainbow that seems to fill the sky.
Awwwwww!!!!
a lovely big rainbow seems to fill the entire sky
- awwwwwww!!!!!
20:00 We settle down on the couch and do the puzzles in next week's Radio Times. Appalling results on the Popmaster - only 3 out of 10. Is it time for us to hang up our pop brains and give up on this one, perhaps?
[I've been suggesting that for years! - Ed]
We make up for this fiasco, however, by scoring an unprecedented 9 out of 10 on the intellectually more prestigious "Egghead" questions, which is nice. We get all answers correct except for Question 2, where we had no clue and happened to guess wrong.
21:00 We go to bed on the first half of a Channel 5 documentary about comedy actress Penelope Keith, who played Margo in "The Good Life" and Audrey in "To The Manor Born", but also roles in lots of other things that Lois and I didn't watch.
If I were to criticise all these Channel 5 documentaries about showbiz stars, it would be to say that the programmes are mostly comments by various talking heads from the business, who are all saying pretty much the same thing about the actor or actress concerned, and just saying it in different ways.
Also in these documentaries, the clips shown from the programmes are always annoyingly short, so tonight, for example, we most often see just one line delivered by Penelope Keith in some sitcom or other, with no context from the surrounding dialogue, which is most unsatisfying if you ask me - just saying haha!!!!
If you wanted to sum up most of Penelope Keith's characters in one word, it would be "bossy" - no doubt about that.
Look at her telling husband Jerry in "The Good Life" that she was thinking it was a bit early in the day to start "boozing". This time, luckily, Jerry has a good answer.
Tremendous fun !!!!!!
22:00 It's a big day tomorrow: our latest COVID booster jab.
We stop watching TV with the documentary only halfway through, because we want to be in bed. Remember the old song?
We like to go to bed about a quarter after ten
We need a lot of sleep, and so we like to be in bed by then [Copyright: Abba]
Don't you feel the same? [Oh just get on with it, and go to bed! - Ed]
We go to bed - zzzzzzzzz!!!!!
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