Sunny Day

It has been a difficult day.  Everything I do is going wrong.  I was tired last night but still awoke at 5 am.  

I fought this but had to rise at 6:30 in that half asleep way.  Whatever I touch has gone wrong since.  I am on a Browser, I try to click the star to save a link and instead press the 'X' and lose the Browser entirely!  I press the button to 'repost' on Twitter and find instead I am 'reporting a fault.'  I have tried to sort out Christmas cards but they keep going into the wrong envelopes, and then someone puts the wrong thing in with the wrong card!  Don't ask what I do when pouring the tea! 

I have left all this until tomorrow!   

I made my ungainly way downstairs to the basement to check the electric meter, I noticed how clean, neat and organised everything was round the building.  The man came along yesterday, clanging his steel ladders as he clambered up to clear the gutters of almost no dead leaves.  He sorted out the weed growth all around and did an excellent job there.  This is our first response to the inspection last week.  No doubt he will find other things to do also, but he claims he has to check the gutters in all her properties, and there are quite a few.  

I checked the numbers on the dial, stumbled up the narrow, slimy, basement steps, and made my way under a shining blue sky slowly upstairs.  I am just glad I went to the right door!  

Checking the crooks at EON I found I had used almost another 50% of electric in the past month, on heating!  It is time to get out the hot water bottles, make tea, use the rest of the water for the rubber bottle and place this behind my back.  This is cheaper than EON, better for me and cuts down the costs.

I mean I can afford to pay the grossly inflated price, which increases in January thanks to a crooked government, but we are being badly used by energy people.

"Hey Boy!  Tell them I am not going back to PMQs until they stop laughing at me."

Meter Reading!

The British Gas lie is under way again.  'Send us your meter reading,' they say, yet the normal system appears to have 'technical problems!  Ha!  This happened last time they were fixing the charges.  The extra system they offered for entering readings did not go through, and I used the normal system.  That is, once it worked!  They demand a reading by tomorrow, for us to save money, but make it impossible to enter one.  Crooks! Crooks! Crooks!

Ha!  Victory!

Trying again brought success.  Forcing me to make use of their new, crooked, meter reading has not worked!  I have entered the reading properly, but will they notice?  

Interesting how the gas prices have fallen back to the original rate, the electric ones have shot up, all the while claiming they are coming down!  Crooks! Crooks! Crooks!  

Nationalise them all now!

So, having clambered down into the bowels of the building for the electric reading, having fought past the overgrown plant to read the gas, my day returned to nothingness.  Hopefully the last effects of this Covid will end this weekend.

Channel Fisher, Eric Ravilious, c.1940

CROOKS!

The Eon Crooks have been at it again.  

They sent a lying email informing me the costs will be coming down,  almost immediately I get another making clear the Tariff has ended and I must choose another.  Both are rip-offs!  One offers a dear monthly payment, that may go up or down according to electricity costs.  Lies all lies!  This will never go down.  The only alternative is a high monthly cost, and summer will soon end.  Crooks, Tory bribing crooks, and inept Labour following on crooks also!   

I am already in credit, but the costs have risen.  Standing charge, day and night charge, and 'line my pockets because you cannot do anything about it' charge are all up!  I cannot use another company, they demand 'smart meters,' and with the meters being in the basement those do not work.  Indeed, the chancers called me the other day, I suspect from the Philippines, demanding I install one.  I reminded the woman that the engineers stated they do not work.  I suspect this will make no difference to these incompetent crooks!

I am not pleased.  I suspect the Gas will do similar shortly.

The 'Daily Mail,' and their fascist friends, have been making a lot of noise re Nigel Farage being chucked out of 'Coutts Bank' because he is a Russian agent.  They are plastering the pages with tales of woe, all because this lying fraud lied in a fraudulent manner about his account being worthless.  I suspect Steve Bannon, the fascist organiser, is behind this latest publicity spiel.  'Outrage' and 'Fury' abundant, all based on lies, and possible fears that they may be next.

No outrage about real problems mind.

Daily Star

We read in the 'Daily Star,' that Aled Jones, a singer, wandering about Chiswick close to home,  was attacked and robbed of his £14,000 'Rolex' watch, by a 'machete wielding' man, possibly as young as 16.  A suspect was found, but so far no 'Rolex' watch.

We ought to feel sympathy at such a loss, however, my reaction was to feel none whatsoever.  Who needs to pay stupid amounts of money for a watch?  Thousands do, singers like Aled, footballers, MPs and others earning amounts high enough not to notice the electric price robbery.  Personally, unless such an item was required, there is no reason to spend thousands on a watch!  We often read of women losing their bracelets or watch to such robbers, I feel no sympathy.  If your understanding of money is such as this you deserve none.

Barcos en el puerto - 1881

Costa Rica Coffee and Eon Inflation

I am Mr Lucky!  There can be no other person as lucky as I.  

Just last night, as I tidied up in the kitchen, I lifted my cafetierie thingy from the washing up and smashed it against the bunker!  

How lucky am I?

Luck was in again as I am hooked on Costa Rica coffee at the moment and without this coffee maker I was going to start seeing spiders up the wall.  At least, apart from the actual spiders that now inhabit my wall.  

Lucky me had intended to remain indoors this morning, stretching my weary limbs and doing nothing beyond my mental abilities.  So, you will realise, nothing was to be done today.  However, the Costa Rica coffee, which I had run out off, called very strongly to me, and by 8:15 I was in Sainburys painfully looking for a new, unbroken cafetiere thingy.  Good grief!  They had one, at an amazing cheap price of only £7:50!  'Only,' is a word used by shops to lie to the customer!  I packed my bag with all the required goodies, including the coffee cafiterie (You spell it your way, I will spell it mine), the bag was overfull as I was buying for the weekend also, and stumbled slowly back up the road, watching the workers heading into town to pretend they are earning a living.  

Back home, having remembered to purchase the Costa Rica coffee also, I packed away my treasures, mostly with 'reduced' labels upon them, sat down at my laptop and swallowed Costa Rica coffee, with double cream obviously.  

Wonderful.  

I cogitated on doing nothing but sitting here with my feet up all day watching the Gala at the West Somerset Railway.  Old Great Western Steam engines plied their way back and forth over the aged rails.  What fun! Several visiting large engines on show here today.  Jolly good show I say!

It was then I remembered I must take the electric meter reading.  

This, as you know, means stumbling downstairs, wandering round the back, lifting the large wooden, filthy lid, and descending down into the bowels of the building to where the meters tick away day and night, never feeling any guilt as they do so.  

What fun!

So, this I did and found going down to be harder than coming back up, somewhat surprisingly.  I also noticed the rubbish lying about down there, no idea where it comes from or who dumped it.  It remains a mystery as to how things find their way into the cellar.

Note taken of the meter, in spite of the dog downstairs barking as he did not recognise me, back upstairs, enter number, ('It's so easy' say EON, forgetting that making £3 billion a year is easy for them, not us.) and send it off.  Within 24 hours the EON AI will tell me I owe them £10,000 and must increase the monthly payment to £500 a week!  Or something similar.  

If only we had an election?  If only we had an opposition? Something could then be done about all this. The future is bleak, and will not improve much for the UK.

Eon Again

 

I got another letter from Eon.  

The send emails and letters informing me I need to switch to a 'Smart Meter.'  The last letter offered it slightly differently by telling me they must replace the meter as it is getting 'old.' Well yes, it has been there for almost 30 years so I would suggest this meter is old.

The problem is meter they wish to install will not work.  This requires a signal, via the phone it seems, but there is no signal in the basement.  On top of this even if there was a signal it would not reach up to the 1st floor.  So it is a non starter.

Now their man told them this when he came to inspect it some time back, but they do not listen.

So, I keep getting such helpful information that is of no earthly use.

Should I be surprised?

All big companies have a major flaw, they are operated by people and computers. 

Neither work well.

The people do not insert information.

The computer carries on as told but does not understand what it has not been told.

Wrong information is inserted.

The computer carries on as told.

No information is inserted by human.

Computer just makes it up as it feels like it.

Or is that the human element?

Privatisation has ended the mass of troubles we used to have with the old 'Electricity Board.  I am so happy it has all worked out so well for us today.

Except of course energy prices are coming down at high speed, but prices are not lowering at all.

Bosses bonus's will be good this year.

Bills, Bills, Bills...

To please the greedy EON Electric people I've had to stumble downstairs, then stumble further down the dead leave covered, slippy, narrow steps into the dim, dank basement to check the meter.  Brushing aside the cobwebs I managed to work out the numbers (I always forget what to do), scribbled them down, and looked around at the dingy surroundings.

 

 

I always find myself asking what that space is for?  These houses all begin with one room, added to over the years.  When did they dig the basement?  What went in that alcove?  This extension at the rear was rebuilt when the landlord took possession, possibly in the 1990's, I am not sure of the date.  

Old maps show the previous building extension but do not explain what it was used for.  It may have been used far back in the past but the building was bought from a doctors, they used the house as a surgery, I doubt they kept a pharmacist down here.  

 

The original steps down are seen covered in slime and dust and filled with rubbish donated by ex-tenants.  It never ceases to amaze how people feel free to dump stuff when they leave.  The old maps show the extension but at no time do they mention what it was for.  A wash house perhaps, with no water?  Until 1861 water had to be brought from the pump of course.  Nothing in the old census indicates the occupants employment.  There again it is not always easy to identify the correct name at this address, the census writers were not helpful to folks like me.  The latest 1921 census is only available on 'Find my Past,' a bunch of money grabbing crooks they are too.  To check the census itself, giving many but not all details, is £2:50, a copy costs £3:50.  It was free on Ancestry once you paid you dues!
 

Anyway, the numbers taken, back up the slimy stairs I slipped, ensuring the door is shut from rats and other vermin.  Before I creaked back upstairs I took a poor shot of our Bluebells.  Three of these come out annually, they have possibly been doing this for centuries!  Delicate things, possibly the original British Bluebell's which are illegal to pick these days.  The only Blubell's I knew as a kid were the 'Bluebell Matches' my dad bought to light the cigarettes that killed him.  Those bulbs bought now in garden centres I believe are Spanish.  Not that I would know, but Brexiteers may get annoyed.   

I inserted the numbers, once I found my way through the many pages, sent off the details.  Today I find the new bill, this tells me how much I pay and how I am £7 in credit.  I am never sure how these chancers work these things out, but they always come out on top.  Once, and if, the weather warms up of course much less use to be made of the electric or gas.  Hooray!  More climate warming around here say I.

Meters

 

Another day of joy and laughter has been with us.  From walking across the park to post the paperwork that took me ages to understand, collect together and finish, with the bright sunshine hiding behind the clouds which rushed along pushed by the north wind.  The chill cut through me, yet an Englishman or two was seen in Spring outfit determined to enjoy the sun.  

I finished the paperwork only as a break from attempting to post the gas and electric meter readings.  As you know, our government has amended the 'energy cap' by up to 54% and prices, especially for the poorest, are shooting up.  With April the 1st, 'April Fools Day,' being the date for the increase to begin so we are advised to enter the reading NOW!  

Naturally all the energy companies websites have crashed!

I struggled for a bit with the gas man until I saw a link at the bottom, happily an emergency link had been added.  This I completed and sent of my reading.  In a day or two I will check to ensure it has logged in.

The electric is still not logged in.

I logged on, sought the meter page and was immediately offered another site, another name change for them, another new password and a site that does not work!  

Time after time I went through the process, usually to find I had 'timed out' after 5 seconds, or 'we are unable to complete because....' and so on.Even when I got through to amend the password the thing found a reason not to continue!!! 

I love computers.

My electric company blamed the money man Martin.  They blamed him because he came on TV and radio and the press and offered advice about entering the meter details.  Everyone listened, as he always comes over as wise and honest, and the system crashed.  'Martin is bringing the country down' said their website.  Martin was advising how to deal with money making energy company chancers but that appears to pass them by.  

I have given up for now, I will try after nine this evening, maybe later, and see how that goes.

Everything these days goes through the internet, and many companies and government offices are running on Microsoft XP, some even on Win 95!  There is something to be said for pencil and paper you know.  

 

Energy Chancers

 

The chancers are at it again.  Both EON, now called 'E.on Next' for no good but certainly a costly reason, and the British Gas people, now called 'British Gas Evolve,' again for no good, but certainly costly reason are asking for a meter reading every month.  This apparently is to ensure you are up to date and able to control your costs, though I notice they do not allow you to reduce those costs as you wish on their websites as they once did.  So, to save costs, I have had to read the gas meter, in the rain, and today, clamber up and down stairs to read the electric meter in the basement (which was warmer than my condominium).

As you may remember I cannot have a 'Smart Meter' as there is no signal in the basement, and therefore I must monthly clamber about to save these grasping chancers from employing men to do so as they once did.  This saves me money?  Cutting their costs, lowering their high salaries and big bonus's to chancer directors, removing this government, and nationalising gas, water and electricity, alongside rail and bus as well as the NHS might help my costs.  I doubt reading meters monthly will do so.  

There is of course no alternative to these large powerful crooks.  It is indeed true there have been problems with gas supply, especially from that nice Mr Putin, who probably has shares in these two companies, yet the smaller companies that still remain are struggling and no cheaper now than this lot, whatever name they use.

Brexit has not helped either, we have lost the collective deals we once shared, and nobody reckons the UK now.  Prices to increase soon, but I am confident that nice Mr Johnson will enable a good deal for us all, unless he is at a party that is.

Busy Day

Having wandered around the corner to Tesco's this morning I then spent the entire day catching up on those things left undone that need to be done but can wait until today when they could wait no longer and I undid them, or something.
Indeed I amazed myself with the vast amount of work that has been done today.  I even worked out my money now that I am officially old and understand just how poor I am.  Still in the past I have been on pauper level and now I am merely in poverty, that is a big step forward.  
The electric people, 'EON,'  a right bunch of crooks are demanding I pay an arm and a leg to satisfy their chairman's desire to become a billionaire.  I am now looking for alternative suppliers.  They say there are cheap folks somewhere around but I have yet to find them, maybe I can do so this week.
The next Gas bill will find me dumping 'British Gas' and their grasping directors!  Pity we canny change the water suppliers they are just as greedy.

 

I almost, but not quite, managed to do some museum work.  Some of those items have been lying around so long the things I wrote have become historical in themselves.  They must be dumped and restarted, all for the better I reckon.  Several years ago I intended, having responded to the 'suggestion,' that one page fact sheets could be produced on a variety of subjects.  I began this and got sidetracked by helping at other exhibitions and sloth.  No need to suggest the main reason.  So I hope to return to this in a few weeks when I cut down the hours spent at the museum.  I will end the Thursday morning and sit at home doing stuff instead.  One day a week at that is enough.  However I note there is a plan in the offing for me and him to work on the website photos, even though we don't know what we are doing!  So I see Thursday not working out even yet.

I need a break from this, I think I will take a break in Afghanistan, it seems to be quieter there these days...

Glasgow

Thursday Twittering

 

As I picked up the mail this morning I found a card lying there.  The electricity man come to check the meter and I had not heard his knock (the bell has long been bust).  I suppose I did not hear this because I spent two minutes hoovering a path through the dust around that time and that deafens everyone, especially the chap below who works nights.  It's a giggle though!

I noted the card informing me he would return tomorrow morning, between 8-12 am.  As I intend to be on a bus by 9:15 I may miss him.  Now this is interesting to me as normally I check my own meter and send it in online, today was the company attempting to ensure I was not cheating them. 

His problem is made worse as the meter is not in the house but in the basement entered around the back.  My downstairs neighbour will never answer the door, he would be awake when this chap called, so he would not be informed of this.

However the card helpfully states that I can mark the details from the meter on the card and leave it where the electric man sent to check the meter can see it, a normal procedure right enough, however he is supposed to read the meter himself!  So to ensure I am not cheating them I fill out the card normally and leave it for him!  Brilliant!

If only banks were as helpful...

On the start of Windows 10 there is an 'app' that tells you the weather.  On mine today, and indeed I've just noticed it remains there yet, the weather informs me the temperature is 65% and 'mostly sunny.'  When I first noticed this, in between the WiFi disconnecting for no reason, the thin rain was coming straight down as it had been for some hours.  It has restarted again, without the thunder, and will continue most of the night the BBC weather man claims.

Where I wonder do Microsoft get their info from? 

Tsk!  Now I click on it a change has arrived the temp has gone up to 67 and it is now, mostly cloudy.'

Someone must have stuck their head out of the window.

Where Are They Now

The reason the weather has deteriorated is because I have a wish to visit Camolodunum tomorrow.  I must change my book voucher even though I bet there is nothing I wish in the only store open to me.  A walk through the shops, in spite of the women using them, is a must, and then home to iron shirts once again.  Scots schools have begun to return I believe, down here they are always a month behind.  We have our last kids activity on September 5th, that's four Saturdays away, so I suspect if I don't get the earliest bus, 9:15, I will meet the brats spending folks money.  It is possible the rain will keep them indoors.

 .

The third price rise of Autumn has come home today.  After the water company deciding I drink too much (I certainly don't bath to much as my landlords secretary pointed out today, and I was so nice to her too), and the Gas company watching winter approach and knowing that I have gas central heating raising their price, today the direct debit for electric rose from £25 a month to £41.  A short, and pointless, discussion with one of their reps got me nowhere.  Now clever people switch companies, as our PM told us to, but some of us are on annual contracts that may cost money to leave, thus losing any benefit moving may give.  Tomorrow I will read up on this but if I am suffering like this how are others surviving?  I need that simple, non physical, light, non intellectual, and well paid work yesterday!  Maybe I ought to start up a utility of some sort?

Talking of a waste of money.....
The skatepark opposite is being refurbished once again. The locals did not want this, the kids all come from far away, and the brats leave the place filthy, in spite of ten new bins being erected, and now it is costing thousands to renovate. The idea of the skatepark is good, the placing of it terrible.  The kids today for the most part behave, although a group of undesirable older chaps have appeared recently.  However there is an element of running after the kids rather than demanding more responsibility for them.  There is no comparison to when I was a lad, we just played football five nights a week for the most part, and that near our own door. Rarely did we have situations that can be compared to this, and human nature does not change.  

Ah, women doing what they do best - housework!

I've got some ironing if any of you girls wish to practice....?

.