@North East Quine - reminds me of the time I was, for some reason, having a bath in the afternoon, when the doorbell rang. Mr F being out I thought perhaps he'd forgotten his key, so I bundled on a dressing gown and went down. It turned out to be an evangelist (with hovering acolytes). To this day it puzzles me why he thought a dripping woman, dressed only in a wrap, standing barefoot on a doorstep, would be disposed to theological discussion.
I know I am being a curmudgeonly old bat, but it would have been nice if any one of the 21 Christmas themed songs in the top 40 had even waved at the manger on the way by. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-55192231
Not curmudgeonly at all, Doublethink, although I can't say I'm surprised.
Personally I'm not too bothered about the lack of Christmas meaning in secular Christmas songs: I think I file them in different mental drawers, IYSWIM.
Our small town is three posties short so we have had many different posties and sometimes none, ie days without deliveries. I think some temps have just been just taken on this week, so the situation should improve.
Here in Melbourne (down-under) we have been limited to postal deliveries on alternate days only for some months now, and set to continue until June. Nothing on Saturday or Sunday, of course, so Mon., Wed., and Fri. one week and Tues. and Thurs. the next week. Very hard to keep track of.
New Zealand has a permanent 3 day a week delivery of standard mail. Our days here are Monday, Wednesday and Friday while other people have Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, so at least it's consistent, though irritating as Monday is the day most likely to be a public holiday.
I get very little mail these days as most people email.
Our local postie is a very chirpy young lass, notable for the cheerful smile with which she greets people. It must be getting towards winter, though, as she has put her legs away, and is now wearing Trowsers...
@Bishops Finger I often think posties are the hardiest people on the planet, based on my local postie’s ability to wear shorts in November, in Scotland... 🥶
But the trouser season has arrived here too. I wonder if Scottish posties should have uniform kilts instead... 🤔
Some of the other posties around here are still in shorts , but I do rather like the idea of a posties' kilt. Maybe a special tartan could be devised, once Blessed Alba becomes independent?
My yarn arrived. Email announcing due between 1 and 3. Doorbell rung at 11. Rushed to look out of upstairs window to see two young women waking away. "Hello!" shouts I. One turned round and indicated the parcel on the doorstep, in a non-British accent, probably Eastern European. Found second email, rescheduled delivery between 12 and 2. It appears to be last weeks' parcel, from the paperwork. Hmm. And the yarn isn't dark enough.
I hereby retract any consigning to the Infernal Regions that I may have imposed on B&Q; the Christmas tree arrived at exactly the time today they said it would, and is now assembled, decorated and lit.
Royal Mail. Parcel was supposed to arrive Saturday. Email Monday to say Will be delivered between x and y. Nope. Email Tuesday to say Will be delivered between (different) x and y. Shortly followed by yet another email to say it was in north-west Edinburgh and would have to be re-routed. Presumably it's had to go back to South Shields and throw a six to start again for I've heard nothing since.
I will join you Firenze. Post office has not done a delivery for two days and has not bothered to ring my door bell to get in the block. An important letter is the Post which I need to have.
I'll join in the chorus against the Post Office - my sister says she forwarded some post weeks ago that came to her house for me, but I haven't seen it. I wouldn't be too bothered, but she said some of it was from Canada and it might be important.
What is this thing called a Po Stoffis of which you speak?
The one in our village street became a Chinese takeaway (ironically, now closed!), and that in the city High Street is now a W*a*h*r*p*o*s Scotch Egg Emporium...
The Clydesdale Bank. Spent half an hour on hold yesterday (after conversation via their chat line) to ask why there was a block on my credit card. Finally reached someone who said it was a security matter and would transfer me to someone else. Then another half hour on hold. Friendly security person asked me what the time was in Canada and said she would deal with my problem, found it was a PayPal - whom plague take - problem and put me on hold while she sorted it. Five minutes on hold and then cut off again. Back on the chat line, fuming, asking for a call back, which came right away. I haven't tried the card again, but heaven help them if it doesn't work next time. No, no - I really have nothing better to do with my time.
TICTH computers which die (die, die!) the death of a thousand hard drive sectors, all at once, basically, right before Christmas. Which now involves a) finding a replacement, b) locating all our backups (don't ask), c) getting them onto the new machine, d) getting all the freaking new software (because the old machine was old enough that we can't simply download programs which were still working fine but which have passed their "we want to deal with this" date with the manufacturer, e) reintroduce my freaking new computer to the zillion sites I stay logged in on, which will ALL of them fucking demand a user id, password, and my firstborn son; and f) doing the delicate dance of "Why yes, we DO want you to type in Vietnamese! But not on EVERY occasion, idiot" which is such a lovely, lovely thing to try to knock through your computer's nonexistent skull.
What is this thing called a Po Stoffis of which you speak?
Despite the name, all the Post Office now has to do with the post is selling stamps and being somewhere to drop off your parcels. Royal Mail Group plc is
a separate company whose responsibilities include mislaying letters, small packets and parcels*.
This isn't to defend the Post Office: it's to make sure that Royal Mail don't get to hide their foulups behind someone else.
*Probably not entirely fair in that during the pandemic Royal Mail have suffered given that their delivery staff face everyone, infected or otherwise, and so many staff have been off work, sick or self-isolating. But when you are used to a daily post that takes a couple of days from despatch to delivery, having post maybe three times a week and typically ten days to deliver weekly (the comic) and fortnightly (Private Eye) magazines begins to wear a bit.
That sounds an absolutely bummer! So sorry to hear this... Whilst the process of getting things vaguely back to normal is going to be a gigantic hassle, I nevertheless hope you are able to work towards restoring your computer etc, without any further hitches on the way.
@Lamb Chopped, Well in times past 10 minutes pre-wedding I prayed for mike to work, and it did all through the wedding only to die again as the priest finished the final blessing. So for what it is worth this evening, I am praying for the angels who are in charge of the software guide and bless you.
We are off to buy a new computer (box only, we have the screen and peripherals) in the a.m. The guy doing the diagnostic said every freaking sector on the hard drive had died but one--and that one died before his eyes, so that data recovery was not possible--but (please God) I don't think (please please please) that we have lost anything we can't easily afford to lose. I will be investigating the quality of our backups tomorrow, hey ho!
That must be just awful. I can't begin to imagine how ghastly now that we all rely so much on our computers. In fact, that reminds me that when the Tech chap comes on Tuesday, I'll remember to ask him to do a back-up on a memory stick.
Heh. Well, our automatic backup system is worthless--it has apparently saved not a thing--and the guy says it was possibly the first sign that the hard drive was going bad, though I am not an IT professional and never put two and two together when it came to the difficulty we were having with installation. Meh. I am now going to gather every freaking memory stick/thumb drive I can find, as we kept older backups on that. And my work is going to spring for a mad attempt to resurrect the bad drive because there are 25K words of their intellectual property on it, and having me rewrite it all would just.suck.
I'm so sorry to hear that the backup situation is looking so dire! There is nothing like a computer going awol to cause stress and worry.... I really hope you manage to find some memory sticks that are carrying a good amount of your work. You are in my thoughts....
John Lewis customer services. My iron has a split in its sole plate and is within their 2 year guarantee. The receipt, which I emailed them, is missing an essential customer number so I have to physically visit a store to exchange or refund. In December. During a pandemic.
Update. John Lewis reprieved from hell though I wasn’t too happy at having to brave the city centre.
Full refund given for the faulty iron in a pleasant and professional manner.
I will join you Firenze. Post office has not done a delivery for two days and has not bothered to ring my doorbell to get in the block. An important letter is the Post which I need to have.
The letter arrived, I have replied and we now wait.
Turns out Delivery on Friday email related to another package. Original parcel still unheard of since Tuesday. All attempts to communicate with RM whether online or by phone end up in some automated parroting of the same information.
I think I shall switch to trying to get a refund from M&S (since, AFAICS, claims of loss can only be made by the sender, not the recipient).
Ever constant changing rulings are frying my brains.
What little is left of them after a week in the world of attempting to engage students (who need help sitting by them to do so what with the various additional needs of all kinds they all have) via on-line sources.
So - I (and they) were sent home to isolate early in the week. in the afternoon. 14 days took us past the end of term. Technically, as we could all have been in contact with a case which was confirmed after we were sent home, our workplace told us a 3 days later date than Test and Trace.
Now the news is saying 10 days from Monday. I am praying that our workplace may see sense and not try to unscramble the mess - but given the high level of all-round scrambled brains - I am not hopeful.
I am mostly condemning the pressure from authorities beyond my educational workplaces who are pressing for all the usual information data-wise yesterday from a suddenly scattered workforce, attempting to do all the usual work on their own devices remotely with a stretched to breaking point IT system which was never intended for wholesale home-based work. And those pressuring us from within are the ones who have worked from home since March with the few workplace-issued laptops which are up to the job.
Ever constant changing rulings are frying my brains.
What little is left of them after a week in the world of attempting to engage students (who need help sitting by them to do so what with the various additional needs of all kinds they all have) via on-line sources.
So - I (and they) were sent home to isolate early in the week. in the afternoon. 14 days took us past the end of term. Technically, as we could all have been in contact with a case which was confirmed after we were sent home, our workplace told us a 3 days later date than Test and Trace.
Now the news is saying 10 days from Monday. I am praying that our workplace may see sense and not try to unscramble the mess - but given the high level of all-round scrambled brains - I am not hopeful.
I am mostly condemning the pressure from authorities beyond my educational workplaces who are pressing for all the usual information data-wise yesterday from a suddenly scattered workforce, attempting to do all the usual work on their own devices remotely with a stretched to breaking point IT system which was never intended for wholesale home-based work. And those pressuring us from within are the ones who have worked from home since March with the few workplace-issued laptops which are up to the job.
Oh, that all sounds awful! I pray you find some calm and peace.
The website that claims that my postcode doesn't come within their definition of "UK mainland" and if I want to order something, the postage will cost almost as much as the item.
Comments
Personally I'm not too bothered about the lack of Christmas meaning in secular Christmas songs: I think I file them in different mental drawers, IYSWIM.
It varies - I've had things delivered by ladies and gentlemen here.
I get very little mail these days as most people email.
Let the reader understand.
This reader does...
Our local postie is a very chirpy young lass, notable for the cheerful smile with which she greets people. It must be getting towards winter, though, as she has put her legs away, and is now wearing Trowsers...
But the trouser season has arrived here too. I wonder if Scottish posties should have uniform kilts instead... 🤔
Sounds like a game of Chutes and Ladders (or Snakes and Ladders there, I think). Good luck!
The one in our village street became a Chinese takeaway (ironically, now closed!), and that in the city High Street is now a W*a*h*r*p*o*s Scotch Egg Emporium...
Suckety suck.
Despite the name, all the Post Office now has to do with the post is selling stamps and being somewhere to drop off your parcels. Royal Mail Group plc is
a separate company whose responsibilities include mislaying letters, small packets and parcels*.
This isn't to defend the Post Office: it's to make sure that Royal Mail don't get to hide their foulups behind someone else.
*Probably not entirely fair in that during the pandemic Royal Mail have suffered given that their delivery staff face everyone, infected or otherwise, and so many staff have been off work, sick or self-isolating. But when you are used to a daily post that takes a couple of days from despatch to delivery, having post maybe three times a week and typically ten days to deliver weekly (the comic) and fortnightly (Private Eye) magazines begins to wear a bit.
That sounds an absolutely bummer!
We are off to buy a new computer (box only, we have the screen and peripherals) in the a.m. The guy doing the diagnostic said every freaking sector on the hard drive had died but one--and that one died before his eyes, so that data recovery was not possible--but (please God) I don't think (please please please) that we have lost anything we can't easily afford to lose. I will be investigating the quality of our backups tomorrow, hey ho!
That must be just awful. I can't begin to imagine how ghastly now that we all rely so much on our computers. In fact, that reminds me that when the Tech chap comes on Tuesday, I'll remember to ask him to do a back-up on a memory stick.
And then go and check mine.
I'm so sorry to hear that the backup situation is looking so dire! There is nothing like a computer going awol to cause stress and worry.... I really hope you manage to find some memory sticks that are carrying a good amount of your work. You are in my thoughts....
Full refund given for the faulty iron in a pleasant and professional manner.
Hope the city centre wasn't too awful. I'm avoiding ours like the plague IYSWIM...
The letter arrived, I have replied and we now wait.
I think I shall switch to trying to get a refund from M&S (since, AFAICS, claims of loss can only be made by the sender, not the recipient).
Failing that, I shall Write to the Papers.
What little is left of them after a week in the world of attempting to engage students (who need help sitting by them to do so what with the various additional needs of all kinds they all have) via on-line sources.
So - I (and they) were sent home to isolate early in the week. in the afternoon. 14 days took us past the end of term. Technically, as we could all have been in contact with a case which was confirmed after we were sent home, our workplace told us a 3 days later date than Test and Trace.
Now the news is saying 10 days from Monday. I am praying that our workplace may see sense and not try to unscramble the mess - but given the high level of all-round scrambled brains - I am not hopeful.
I am mostly condemning the pressure from authorities beyond my educational workplaces who are pressing for all the usual information data-wise yesterday from a suddenly scattered workforce, attempting to do all the usual work on their own devices remotely with a stretched to breaking point IT system which was never intended for wholesale home-based work. And those pressuring us from within are the ones who have worked from home since March with the few workplace-issued laptops which are up to the job.
Oh, that all sounds awful! I pray you find some calm and peace.
After I have baked the cakes and muffins I will deal with the 6 legged spawn of satan.
I initially wrote Swans of satan. somehow it doesn't have the same ring to it.