The Canary Dave

Good morning all from a warm and wet Weston-super-Mare!

Have a good day

 

Keep cool today folks on hot climes

 

Morning all. It is going to be hot. Came face to face with one of these in the kitchen this morning.

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Ugly creatures, yet some people try to keep them as pets.

 

38 degrees C expected in Cologne today - a good day to stay up in them thar hills ? Not exactly normal at the moment with the whole of Germany in a heatwave, and Belgrade more, or less, flooded. Hail stones in some parts of Italy !

 

There is an interesting survey conducted by Which ranking parcel delivery services in the UK. From time to time we send a gift to someone bought from a UK company. The winner in the survey by a long way is DPD, something that doesn't surprise me. Whenever they are delivering something I find out from their tracking service, which driver has the parcel, how many drops he has before getting to mine, a map showing his route and the time he will arrive within 15 minutes. After he has delivered it I will know if he has handed it over or left it in a safe place, with a photo to show where it is, and a card through the letter box to let someone know where to look. By contrast the worst is Yodel. My experience of them is that they fail to tell you if they have delivered or not until the due date is gone. More than once they have lost something for several days, and the delivery staff have been described as grumpy and disinterested. Certainly their tracking system is worse than useless. Seemingly there are 17 companies in the UK doing this type of delivery, and judging by some of the comments about Yodel that is one too many.
Anyone else on here have experience of these companies?

 

The biggestr issue for me is where they put them when we are not rousable or in... .you can have delivery instructions/// but they seem to count for nothing

 

My worst experiences have been with GLS (Global logistics services) Frenchie. Of course their staff don't care - they are underpaid, overworked and often conversant only with Russian, Polish or Arabic. It is the type of job which immigrants do when they first arrive in the country. The biggest problem is the use of sub contractors - if the Royal Mail sub contract a service to someone else then the item is still their responsibility, although they don't accept that. In cases where an article is lost nobody wants to actually claim the responsibility. Is it the sender, the main contractor or the sub contractor ?

 

There are far fewer companies operating in France, and to a large extent they have been good at delivering on time. I cannot tell how many might be immigrants as they all speak French, although many see my name and will speak English without asking.

 

If deliveries are with the Deutsche Post then there is no problem, but there are several private companies offering a cheaper service (based on cheaper wages, freelance employment etc. etc) which the Royal Mail then often sub contracts to - my point is that if the Royal Mail sub contracts a service to them (rather than the DP) then they are responsible for any hitches on the way. Driving jobs of all sorts are often favoured by newly arrived immigrants Frenchie, and German (in contrast to French or English) is not a language which immigrants tend to know on arrival.

 

Where is the thunderstorms and rain they promised? Ground workers laid off today for nothing, wasted a whole day. The UK is lucky to have such a mild and temperate climate.

 

OK you lovely people, I'm off to bed!

Night all

Night H

 

Good morning all from a warm and dry Weston-super-Mare!

I started my new round of treatment yesterday, I woke up at 0330, just made it to the bathroom and was sick as a dog, went back to bed and and had a similar experience at 0630,, again went back to bed and have just woken up

I hope it doesn't happen again next week

Have a good day

 

oh sorry..Dave

take good care

 

Morning all. Sorry to read that Dave. I hope that you feel better as the day goes on.

Well the temperature is steadily rising, and you just have to plan your day around it. There is a builder at work across the lane, and he started soon after first light. I was watering last night just as the light was going. The English people who own a house in the village, but are not here a lot, are having to keep going on their project and trying to get the garden under control before they return to England at the weekend. It is fine if you can keep cool and stop for an afternoon of tennis on the TV.

 

OK you lovely people, I'm off to bed!

Night all

Night H

 

Good morning all from a warm and dry Weston-super-Mare!

Have a good day

 

Getting warmer.. Hot on the mainland eh.. Keep cool

 

Morning all. Hope you had a less troubled night last night Dave, and are feeling better today.

It was 30°C in my bedroom at 8.00 am and despite the fans it was too hot. Much cooler downstairs, but outside it is already warming up. Very strange that all of the normal sounds from the farm are missing, not a leaf is twitching, and the only movement is from the swallows and butterflies. Many small towns have their council run camp sites, and the one where I go for bread has a very nice site alongside the river. Each year I see the same caravans arrive and park up in their favoured spots, and there is quite a community spirit there with long tables set out for shared meals. Quite what it was like last night in one of those tin boxes doesn't want thinking about. Have a good day whatever you must or want to do.

 

I think my illness was nothing to do with my treatment, I think it was just a coincidence.

 

Phew!!