Ticketed – Cancelled

Posted: Wed 3 May, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Customer Services, Domestic, Driving, Milton Keynes, Parking | 1 Comment »

Just under six weeks ago now, I got a parking ticket in Milton Keynes, despite having paid for the necessary parking.  Needless to say, I lodged my appeal about it when I got home, did all the online form-filling, added the receipt from the parking payment, provided a contact email address, job done.

And then silence.

I chased it up by email a couple of weeks ago. And then silence.

Now, I assumed that as I’d heard nothing (and no further bills had come to tell me I needed to pay it) that the appeal had worked, but I’d have expected some form of notification.

So yesterday I decided to make sure it was all sorted, this time by phone.

Only… There’s no phone number.

  • Yes, there’s one on the page about parking tickets, but that turns out to be only for the licensing people.
  • Then there’s the council switchboard, who give you a different number for the parking people.
  • Then that department give you the actual number for the parking ticket people
  • And finally, on the fourth call, I got to the right place, confirmed that the appeal had been processed and the ticket cancelled, and that they’d (allegedly) sent me a letter telling me that.  (And fuck only knows why they pay to send a letter when I’ve given them an email address they could use for free!)

So at least it’s all sorted, and it hasn’t cost me anything. But still,

 

Aging

Posted: Mon 1 May, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Food, Getting Old(er), London, M1, Sociable | 1 Comment »

This weekend was one of my dafter ones in a while.

On Thursday I did my usual ‘site visit’ to the office where my primary client is based – which is about 100 miles drive each way. Makes for about four hours driving as well as most of a working day.  At the same time I’d somehow sort of knackered my foot – slightly swollen, almost like a gout attack but nowhere near toes. Odd, but nothing major.

Then Saturday was a trip down to London – a good lunch with friends first before going to the theatre in the evening and then home.  Again, 100 miles-ish driving each way, plus London transport and walking.  Got home about 1am, but didn’t get to sleep til after 3am.

Then Sunday was a trip up to York to meet another friend for more food and drinks. Entirely my own choices, and I’m blaming no-one, it’s just how it all worked out.  But another 100 miles each way, another 2 hours each way in the car, plus a shitload of walking.

So between Saturday morning and Sunday night I’d driven the entire length of the M1 (London to York).  Twice.  I’d walked just under 23Km over the two days, but it was the driving that took it out of me the most.  I got out of the car here and everything just hurt and pretty much shut down – indeed I ended up with a reaction like shock – shivering, cold and clammy, and not really all that functional.  It eased off, but I wonder if it was that sudden “everything hurts all at once” that dumped the body into a state of surprise and “What the hell’s happened there?”

It’s all been fine by today – aching legs and so on, but nowhere near as bad as last night – and I’ve spent the day doing Not Much, along with rehydrating.

But I think I might just have to admit to myself that I’m getting a bit older – and that eight hours of driving in 48 as well as a load of walking and general alcohol and idiocy is perhaps no longer as easy as I’ve usually found it.

Ticketed

Posted: Sat 25 March, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Cynicism, Domestic, Milton Keynes, Pedantry, Stupidity | Leave a comment »

This morning, I got given a parking ticket – incorrectly, as it happens, and it’s already been challenged.

However, on reading the back of the ticket, I came across this gem

Click to embiggenify

For those who don’t want to enlarge the text, what it says is :

If the penalty charge is not paid [wordy guff] or has been successfully challenged, the Council may serve a Notice To Owner (NTO) on the owner of the vehicle requiring payment of the penalty charge.

Now, I know what they mean, but that’s not what they say.  The implication here (as I read it) is “If you’ve successfully challenged the ticket, we can still come after you for the money“.

So, I’ve raised that as an issue as well, which should be interesting – or at least entertaining!

Slooooooow Processing

Posted: Mon 20 March, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: BT, Business, Customer Services, Domestic | Leave a comment »

When I moved house back in October, one of the changes I made was to get rid of BT entirely.  (That one decision has saved me about £50 a month!)

As part of that, they wanted me to send back the bits of BT kit that I had, which is fair enough. That was all sent mid-October using their own pre-paid envelopes, and I got a confirmation on 3rd November that everything had been received.  So that was all fine.

However, on Friday I then got another message, this one confirming that I’d actually returned the stuff I’d been allocated – rather than, apparently, any other old random crap – and that they’d *now* recycle or dispose of it all.

So, five months to process the returns.  That really does tell you everything you need to know about the efficiency of BT, doesn’t it?

Credit Check

Posted: Fri 10 March, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Bankruptcy, Customer Services, Domestic, Finances, Rebuilding | Leave a comment »

Since the bankruptcy, I’ve used a couple of free services – Credit Karma (which used to be Noddle) and ClearScore – to keep track of my credit score.  It’s always been interesting, seeing what things affect the score and what doesn’t.  (For example, moving dropped it by a good 150 points until I was verified on the new electoral roll and so on)

Part of those services is the alerting, that tells you when your record has been searched (either a soft-search or a hard-search, which have different effects on the record) which is also useful in helping to prevent scams – you’ll be told if someone has tried to create a new loan or bank account for you, for example. Obviously this is A Good Thing.

This week I got an alert from Credit Karma about a soft search of my record, which was a warning sign as I hadn’t done any credit searches or applications.

So I logged in to Credit Karma, checked the alerts and yes, there was a search there.

By Credit Karma.

So for some convoluted reason, they’d decided to alert me about the fact that they had themselves been doing a (fully expected) soft search.

Sometimes I just despair of these things…

Spring Incoming

Posted: Tue 28 February, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic | 1 Comment »

So here we are, the end of February.

The sun is now officially rising before 7am (and won’t go back to a later-than-7am rise until October 1st) and setting after 5:30pm. (By mid-March it’ll be setting after 6pm)

Daylight hours are currently at just under 11hours (10hrs 45 today) which is a huge improvement from the Solstice-low of 7hrs 50mins.

There’s still a way to go, obviously, but it’s beginning to feel like we’re over Winter again. Which is generally A Good Thing.

Devices

Posted: Sun 26 February, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Green, Technology, Television | Leave a comment »

Over the last few weeks, I’ve managed to get through two TVs – which is annoying, but thankfully hasn’t been hideously expensive.

Back in Tiny House, my TV was comparatively tiny, I think a 24″ screen. It was fine for the space I was in, and lasted me well.  However, in New Place, the living room is considerably larger, so the comparatively tiny screen was less than ideal – but still worked.

This all came up in conversation with friends, and one of them offered a larger screen for free – they were moving, merging houses and so on, and had an extra 43″ screen that otherwise would just be going spare (or going to the tip) so I was happy to take that one. It meant I didn’t have to get a new one, and it was also a case of being a bit greener, rather than just trashing things. I collected it about a month ago, and it’s been fine until this week.

For some reason, it’s ended up throwing a complete wobbly – something to do with the sensor/receiver for the remote control, from what I can tell – and became a nightmare to use.  If the remote worked at all, it was as if it was the key was staying down and repeating the input continuously.  And it was with two different remotes (the actual TV remote, and the Sky remote that was also able to operate the TV) which is what makes me think it was the sensor/receiver.  Regardless though, it made the entire thing into an absolute pain in the chuff, and even a hard reset didn’t fix things.

So… despite all my good intentions, I ended up ordering a new screen, the same size as the one I’d been given. (As I know it at least fits/works in the new living room) It got ordered on Friday and delivered on Sunday, which is pretty good – particularly as I was out for most of Saturday anyway – and it’s all now installed and set up, so I’m happy.

Obviously I’d rather that things had worked out better for that middle screen, but at the same time it’s been moved at least two (and probably three) times, so it’s at least vaguely understandable.  Anyway, they’ll go to the tip tomorrow, in order to be as recyclable as possible, and all that jazz.

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