Off Topic Other Stuff (anything you want to share)

Still having problems with the machinery. My brand spanking new computer arrived today. All I need is No.1 son to sort out what goes where and kick it into life and I'm up and running again. Trouble is he decided to bugger off for this weekend so it ain't gonna be till next week sometime. I'm just hoping that it isn't much difference to what I'm used to. I was never very good at learning new stuff on this internet thingy.

 

Am I getting old and confused....don't answer that.

Since my wife got herself an all singing all dancing Apple ipad our BT Infinity One account has been getting more of an hammering.

It had a 45GB limit....which just for me was adequate....but with Mrs Plym also using the account it started going over the limit by up to 30GB a month. Every GB over the limit was charged at £1.80 ...which would cost £54 extra a month.....more than what I pay for the original 45GB account.

I had a chat with BT to try to get a better deal...and they thought they could do something for me....and offered me a limitless usage account, which sounded great...so I asked what that would cost me, expecting it to be somewhere in the middle of what I was paying and the extra usage that we were both having now.
I was quoted a price that was £13 a month LESS than my original 45GB account....I said sorry did I hear that correctly....how can that be so I said....the answer was because you are a "valued account holder sir" (I have had an account since we were first married, 53 years ago).

If I was that valued an account holder....how come they have willing charged me so much for going over the limit without suggesting to me that they could give me a better deal.....it was up to me in the end to get in contact with them, before a limitless usage account became available to me.

How many account holders are paying BT £millions over the top that they don't really need to.

As I said to start with....am I getting old and confused.

 

YES but that's the short answer.

It's all this "new customers only" bull and bollox to the ones they have already. Loads of companies do this sort of thing. I got offered a card by my bank a while back which I could have for £10 a month. They said they noticed I didn't have a card. I said very loudly for a lot of people to hear "have you also noticed that I have an account that doesn't give me any interest. and do you have any accounts that will pay me to leave money in your bank?" The girl reached for a leaflet which I declined. I told her that I didn't want one but as a customer it might be nice for them to offer me something to my advantage rather than something else they would like me to pay for. I never left more than a few quid in the account each month so the interest would not have been worth the bother but that isn't the point. I think she got the message along with the other 10 people in the queue. It's tempting to tell them where they can shove their service isn't it.

 

Over half a century in the Halifax and they write to you to tell you that your £5 "bonus" for putting X amount into your account each month is changing to.....£3 a month. Also your percentage interest is also changing from 0.5% to 0.25% a year.....who thinks that low inflation is a good thing....not all pensioners I can inform you of that.

 

WHY ?

1.....Why... when you give up waiting for the bus, and you start walking it comes when you're equa-distance between two stops, then having had a little mumble to yourself and you're resigned to walking....another damn bus goes by as well....grrr.

2.....Why...doesn't toast fit the toaster any longer.....you turn it around to toast the other end and burn it.

3.....Why...when you start a load of washing the weather changes and it starts raining.....OR... you decide to bring the washing in after you've finish what you're at present doing...and it's started raining and you haven't noticed.

4.....Why ...does it start raining just before you start cutting the grass....and the garden waste bin will be emptied tomorrow.... and the damn things empty.

5.....Why...while in the supermarket you see a good offer....buy one get one free....and there is only one left on the bleaging rack.

6.....Why...when you need 3hrs parking, you find it's a 2hr maximum meter....OR....you have to put more money in than you need because you haven't got the right change.

7.....Why... do you, when half a sleep struggle out with your array of dustbins etc...before 7am....and only notice when finished that you are the only one who has done it....you then remember that there has been a Bank Holiday and your collection is one day later....you then proceed hurriedly and as quiet as possible to sneak them back in...hoping no one has noticed what a prat you've been.

8.....Why...does the bus you get on dawdle at the bus stop before the station, because he's early...and you then miss your train.

9.....Why... does the bus you run for wait for you, and you thank the driver...then you notice he is checking his timetable because he is early....and then another bus sweeps by and disappears down the road.

10.....Why...after feeling pleased with yourself that you've checked the internet...and avoided the road works on your planned journey...the route is snarled up with traffic....you later find out the direct routes road works were finished the day before and someone says how easy their journey was....no traffic around.

11.....Why...when you find that item of clothing in the shop that you have been planning to buy for awhile is on the rack in your favourite colour....but they only have available sizes for dwarfs or fully grown gorillas....how does that happen with computer controlled stocktaking.

12.....Why...Have I not noticed that my Kew or NT membership card that I show, is out of date and finished yesterday....and the new one that they sent you more than a month ago is sitting at home in a prominent position so you wont forget it when it is needed. So you have to pay...but you can get your money back later by jumping through a few hoops...........

 

Been watching a bit of Gridiron....American Football on BBC2.....comes a poor second to marbles for excitement....terrible to watch.

How can one minute eighteen seconds take so long to play to get to the end of the second quarter.....it got down to one minute eight seconds and they put it back to one minute eighteen seconds again....so painful to watch....so much mamby pamby padding to protect them from what I'll never know.

They have more rules and regulations during the game than the EU make in twelve months.

No touch downs after two quarters just one piddly field goal.

 

Having done my National Service in the Crown Colony of Aden in 1961/62...I was interested in watching the new BBC 6-part Drama called "The Last Post" set in Aden in 1965.
Not the Aden I can remember....certainly not squalid and filthy enough, where were the blinking goats roaming around everywhere,
I saw far more Arab women in the TV Drama than I ever saw whilst in Aden....they were never allowed out of the back streets, were service personnel were banned from.
Red Caps just policed the servicemen when I was out there....the army had thousands of men dealing with any local troubles....if it got really serious there was always 45 Commando based in Little Aden.
Wall mounted air condition units in married quarters...always ceiling fans going 24/7 in every room, not curtained windows with white nets, and certainly never have closed windows, whatever time of the year. Battery charged shavers, did they exist in 1965 ?
Everyone wore flip-flops when out of uniform....never saw a European woman wearing high heels ever like they were in the TV Drama....and the stench didn't quite come over on the telly.
Ok maybe I was expecting too much in the way of accuracy.

 

I watched that as well plym and for the era it wasn't much of what I remembered of the area either. That was 1965 supposedly and I'd guess you were a bit before that and I was in 1967. I do remember Mad Mitch and his boys going to town on the town when the Brits pulled out. Wasn't that the Argyll and Southern Highlanders? Anyway I think there is more than a small amount of artistic licence being used for the programme.

 

Other than a small crises up Kuwait when you were either working or on some guard duty and never in civvies, 1961/62 was quite peaceful...it was only when the troubles started that it became unbearable out there and all the families got repatriated straight away....impossible to keep them safe, most of them lived in a unsecured area called Maalla straight.....multi storied flats undefendable really....started with letter bombs on door mats etc.

Some of the scenes on the BBC drama was old footage.....they surely didn't do filming in a Aden for this drama....it's just a broken down war zone now of the Yemen.

 

Just checked....the programme was filmed in Cape Town South Africa...a lot wetter than Aden.....we had one 30 minute shower, early boxing day morning when most of the lads were still in bed....dry by 7am, no one would have known....that was the only rain I saw there in 19 months. Now dust storms that was different....you knew one was coming because 90f suddenly became 120f before it hit.

 

Just back from a 680 mile round trip (via Bristol Rovers) to celebrate my step-mums 90th birthday. She was chuffed as a badger to go out with her 3 boys (aged 71, 60 and 53-and I am the youngest one) for lunch. Don't suppose I will see 90 but if I do I hope I am half as fit as she is. She puts her good health down to no medication and a glass of champagne everyday!

 

Lyndy, being the youngest did you get the cast-offs...or were you to young for that ?

 

Hope you took her a nice bottle of Bubbly,. Happy Birthday to her.. well that is all we drink now when we do.. its all i can like the taste of. I use to like Guinness but to watered now.

Nice pint apple cider vinegar in the morning, diluted of course? manuka honey and vit d.. to start the day.. I doubt it will do any good but there it must help,,

 

I can't be doing with this healthy lifestyle stuff. I can't see the point of adding a few years on to your life if you have to give up everything you like to get them. I'm not saying eat it, drink it or do anything you like just for the sake of it but I'm damned if I'm giving up everything. I like some foods that aren't good for you. A pasty is one. I like some drink but not enough to get me smashed. I don't always get as much exercise as I perhaps should but I do walk a fair bit and potter about in the garden. If it all kills me then so be it.

Guiness is a decent drink Joe but better bought in Ireland where they make proper stuff. I remember being over there and trying it. Didn't like it much when I had tried it in England but their efforts over there were much better and if I lived there I'd drink it more often.

Happy birthday to grannie lyndhurst.....................

 

Sensible, its not his grannie its his step mother..

Yes tried the Guinness in Ireland, i do like it but im not a fan of beer now .. i use to drink a few. Never to much tho.

Now i keep off it all as one i like to keep fit and the other i have to be clear for my lad.. as i never know what is going to happen and when im needed..
I do agree that you should eat and drink what you like. in moderation..

 

Yes Joe...you have a commitment to your young son 24/7....nothing stronger than wine gums then.

Anymore news about the on going legal side at the moment Joe....a few years now.

 

If she's 90 Joe then she has to be somebodies grannie..........or is that Joe 90?

 

Thanks Plym, yes he is my main concern. Yes we are a step nearer. Next up we are meeting in London in the new year with the high court and all the professional involved on our side to see what next.. only 6 years so far.. no rush .. a lot of stress .. so we dont actually push it

 

Thanks Joe....just keep doing what you have to....the end result will come one day....hopefully in your sons best interest.

 

Thanks Plym, we are not to bothered about the financial side of it, we just want closure.

We have enough to look after him and will always do that like most parents do and have done. Shall i say its just a bit challenging, that is not him its the idiots we have to deal with .. they call their selves professionals... i have another name for them...