Freezing weather here, so I bought a new heater. Neither the box it came in or the person who served me told me it had to be assembled with a certain type of screw (8 enclosed when only 2 are required) that needs a special type of screwdriver - which I don't have.
Tomorrow I will have to get on the bus with it and take it back to the shop - it isn't heavy, but it is an awkward shape for a short person to carry. Thank goodness the bus is very unlikely to have many passengers
I expect they will screw on the feet for me because it's a hardware shop and they have tradespeople working there, and they are usually helpful, besides if they don't I shall thcream and thrcream until I'm thick (with apologies to Richmal Crompton - I think it was Violet Elizabeth who was the original thcreamer).
Meanwhile I will wear 5 layers to bed tonight including a hoodie. So much for sexy nightwear.. (sigh)
Meanwhile I will wear 5 layers to bed tonight including a hoodie. So much for sexy nightwear.. (sigh)
Whereas last night I was rifling the drawers for something light enough to wear to bed. Eventually came up with a top I bought in Valletta (all of 5€) which is just two squares of an ultra-thin fabric. Very sticky day culminating just now in a welcome shower.
Firenze - Thanks, you reminded me that I would rather be too cold than too hot. After I had fed Aroha this morning I went back to my bed to grab my tablet for recharging I realised how much body heat was still trapped in the blankets. Only the fact that I had dressed stopped me going back to bed.
Time to go and see if I need to do a Violet Elizabeth impression.
It's a pity the thweaming and the lisp hide how ready she was to join in crawling through mud and so on, and to minimise any Outlaw involvement to adults.
I took the heater to the shop and explained I didn't have a magnetic tipped screwdriver, the manual dexterity nor the patience to attach the feet - then it turned out that I didn't gave proof of purchase either, but they did it anyway. Actually the woman on the door said she would have vouched for me - one of the benefits of shopping close to home and being a frequent customer I think.
Cheerfully consigning automated telephone services hosted by UK Local Authorities.
No , I cannot seek my information on your website as I need to speak to a real life person, who is not picking up their phone or answering their emails. But apparently still wants me to reply to them.
Sheesh.
I ‘ll be turning into a moss statue at this rate
.
My NOOK. I have downloaded a book I want to read (not Gaudy Night, which is unobtainable) as a pdf, and copied it to my storage system, and then to the NOOK, so I can take it out with me and read it anywhere. I can read the pdf on any of my computers directly from the storage system. I can read it as a pdf on one of my hybrids as a tablet. (I think. I now think I had better check.) But the NOOK deletes, or doesn't copy, the end few pages of each chapter - within the single file which is the pdf.
I could find several sources for a pdf version of Gaudy Night: it seems out of copyright in different areas. I found it looking for a version of the book, so just Googled again to see how available it is and found at least four different sources. I could also find it a cost on Kindle.
I could have sent you a paper copy of Gaudy Night when I was clearing our house in Fredericton. Dorothy L. Sayers was one of David's favourite authors*, and while I quite enjoyed the Wimsey books, I had no desire to read them more than once, so they went to the charity shop.
* Now I think about it, he asked me to bring some of her books to him in hospital; Gaudy Night may have been the last book he (re)read before he died.
Is it Unitarian? Whittier, who wrote ‘The brewing of Soma’ from which the hymn is taken, was a Quaker. It first appeared as a hymn in Garrett Horder’s Congregational Hymns of 1884. I agree it could be sung without offending Unitarian or Christadelphian sensitivities. But my guess would be that it’s not the only hymn in the book which doesn’t assert the divinity of Jesus.
As a wedding hymn a couple might choose on their wedding day not to sing a hymn whose second line is ‘forgive our foolish ways’.
Yes, it's very Quaker, as we don't have Creeds don't expect Credal Statements, either Trinitarian or Unitarian. As much as anything it's a call for people to turn to the simplicity of Quaker worship and eschew the obscure distractions of other forms of worship. In some ways, it's odd that it's used as a hymn by groups whose practices that the full poem critiques. Personallly, I'd love to hear a full congregation and choir sing these verses of the poem to that familiar tune.
Some fever of the blood and brain,
Some self-exalting spell,
The scourger’s keen delight of pain,
The Dervish dance, the Orphic strain,
The wild-haired Bacchant’s yell,— 45
The desert’s hair-grown hermit sunk
The saner brute below;
The naked Santon, hashish-drunk,
The cloister madness of the monk,
The fakir’s torture-show! 50
And yet the past comes round again,
And new doth old fulfil;
In sensual transports wild as vain
We brew in many a Christian fane
The heathen Soma still!
However a small unaccompanied congregation might well sing it without trouble. Please read one of the accounts of Marilynne Robinson Congregational Church to get an idea about what Congregational worship is often like. Hint: Congregational means governed by the congregation rather than by Priests as in Presbyterian.
In a church meeting chaired by the minister who was expected to believe that he/she is first among equals: a meeting which sought to find the will of the Holy Spirit for the congregation.
Boy, was I shocked by my first meeting which resulted in a split vote.
But we were home to a number of Presbyterians, there being no home for ex-pat Scots in the vicinity.
Driving licenses. Did anyone else fail to notice that driving licenses have an expiry date? I suppose it makes sense that the photo isn't too old.
I got an email this morning from the company that checks driving licenses for the insurance to drive work vehicles, informing me that my license has expired. Pull out my licence, and yes it has an expiry date of 6th July 2021. DVLA didn't bother to let me know it was due to expire or provide any information on how to renew it, so I did an internet search taking me to a DVLA page for renewal where I spend time going over the form a few times (which is probably not compliant with equality legislation!) getting the details in exactly as needed ... only to get told at the end that I can't renew it online. So, I'll need to risk my life and that of others by going into the Post Office in person to get my driving licence renewed.
Whinge 1: that I only new my licence had expired because I happen to be on the list of approved drivers for the works car and the company that runs that informed me. Surely that should be part of what the DVLA should do?
Whinge 2: that during a pandemic with record numbers of new cases daily I need to forego social distancing to renew the licence in person at the Post Office.
Whinge 3: how does an official government online form get away with being non-compliant with equality legislation?
Driving licenses. Did anyone else fail to notice that driving licenses have an expiry date?
Whinge 1: that I only new my licence had expired because I happen to be on the list of approved drivers for the works car and the company that runs that informed me. Surely that should be part of what the DVLA should do?
It could be argued that it's you who benefits from having the driving licence, so it's up to you to make sure that the licence is still valid - that you can still benefit from having the licence. The personal responsibility aspect isn't all that far different from the expectation in UK tax law that it's up to the taxpayer to declare what tax they owe.
And do DVLA actually know - ten years on from the last issue of your licence - where you live? You're meant to tell them when you move but not everyone does (does anyone?). I've had a number of rather bumpy interactions with DVLA (only one of which admittedly was about a driving licence - the others were about road tax and vehicle licensing) which lead me to think that their IT is not of the best. So to get them to reliably know where you are such as to send you a reminder at the end of ten years would mean a big (and expensive) upgrade to their IT. I can see why HM Treasury might argue against this.
My photocard expired, but I was in the group of people granted an 11month extension, and I was under the impression that I would receive a reminder at the appropriate point in time...
Likewise, I will have to go to the Post Office to do it, which brings me to add a whinge to yours:
Whinge 4: why is it possible to submit a digital photo online to apply for a passport, but you can only apply for a driving license photocard online if you have a passport? Why is not possible to upload a digital photo (as you do for a passport)?
And do DVLA actually know - ten years on from the last issue of your licence - where you live?
Since the instructions on the Post Office website about using their service to renew a driving licence state "Bring your renewal reminder" (form D798 renewal notification) I assume that means that the DVLA should be in touch. My address is the same as it was 7y ago when I last renewed it (when I last moved).
And do DVLA actually know - ten years on from the last issue of your licence - where you live?
Since the instructions on the Post Office website about using their service to renew a driving licence state "Bring your renewal reminder" (form D798 renewal notification) I assume that means that the DVLA should be in touch. My address is the same as it was 7y ago when I last renewed it (when I last moved).
OK. It looks as if DVLA are meant to tell you after all. So
1) My elegant defence of why they don't write to you can be replaced with 'it looks like DVLA are a bunch of useless clowns'
2) Given that (by the sounds of things) your licence was updated 7 years ago, did that actually amount to a new licence being issued (which therefore has three years left to run)?
3) Does your employer have the same expiry date for your licence as the licence itself shows?
My employer (or, rather the third party company they subcontract the task of keeping licence information) gets the expiry date from the DVLA, and the one printed on my license is indeed yesterday. The update 7y ago was almost certainly just a change of address, without a new photo.
I was sent a reminder letter. In fact I was sent a letter reminding me that the. Ovid amnesty for getting new licenses had run out, and I had a month to get one. When I checked, yes it did run out during lockdown! Since my passport has also run out (and I am not paying to get something I am unlikely to use, unless and until I can find good reason to leave these shores) I had to go into the post office. But not my local one. I could travel 45 miles to the nearest PO which offered this service (in the end I went to Dingwall as I had to be there for a funeral visit). Tiny PO. Made m wonder why my equally tiny local branch didn’t do this. The process is fascinating, as you stand in a wee booth and it takes your picture, then you wipe a stylus with antibiotic and sign a pad, and both of these things wing their way to Swansea instantly.
I was pretty impressed, but less impressed that this all costs more than renewing online, which you can only do with a passport (presumably because they ready have your photo verified for that).
This was all just before we moved, so I was able to change my address at the same time, and this alerted me to remind husband and son to change theirs: same passport procedure, but no fee.
The main PO here is large - but there were only two staff on duty (but also only one other customer in there when I went in). Same procedure with the photo booth and electronic signature, I didn't get as far as finding out what the online charge would have been to compare but I know the PO charge a small fee for the service (and, similar services such as passports).
Likewise, my passport has expired (about a month ago) and there seems little point paying for a new one until there's at least a prospect of going somewhere. If I hold off for a couple of years I might get to have a nice burgundy one with the words "European Union" still on it, and "Republic of Scotland". If I need one early I'll probably end up with one of those horrid Boris Blue ones they've started printing in France for the English.
So, going by @Cathscats' experience, I should (in due course) get a letter reminding me about my photocard. That's a relief, as if you expect me to remember that, I'll be in trouble.
It still makes no sense to me that you can submit a digital photo for a passport (which I don't currently have, hence needing to go to a Post Office), but not a driving licence.
About as much sense as the online form to renew a driving licence requiring you to enter your gender as though that's relevant to driving ability. And, having made that necessary to then limit your options to just two genders. Does someone in the DVLA think that only cisgendered people can drive?
You've obviously made it further through the form than I have - I didn't get beyond what you need to do for the photo.
I have occasionally been tempted to answer questions like M/F? with "Yes"
I applied online for my replacement driving licence as soon as possible (I turn 70 in September).
The new licence turned up very quickly, and in the same post I received an application form for said replacement licence - presumably in the nature of a reminder.
Should I complain that the DVLA didn't notice I'd already applied?
I had to give up my driving licence in late 2015, after epileptic seizures and subsequent brain surgery. I applied to have it renewed in autumn 2017, after the 12 months since my last seizure had expired, and duly received a 3-year provisional licence.
When that expired in autumn 2020, I applied for it to be renewed again, but was told I had to wait for the DVLC's Medical Team to receive confirmation from my consultant and GP that I was still OK to drive. This took quite a long time, owing to the pandemic, but eventually the new licence - using the mugshot from the previous issue - arrived (about 3 months ago).
In the meantime, the DVLC had provided me with an official letter confirming that I was allowed to drive, under the terms of the Road Traffic Act, as long as my health remained stable.
The paperwork all had to be done *by hand*, as it were, with no provision for online form-filling, but the DVLC were as prompt and efficient about it as they could be. The delay - of several months! - was due largely to the enormous backlog of work at King's College Hospital (I'm nearly a year overdue for my MRI scan).
However a small unaccompanied congregation might well sing it without trouble. Please read one of the accounts of Marilynne Robinson Congregational Church to get an idea about what Congregational worship is often like. Hint: Congregational means governed by the congregation rather than by Priests as in Presbyterian.
Presbyterians are governed by priests rather than by presbyters (elders)? I think that would come as a surprise to most of my tribe.
(Yes, I do know the English priest is derived from the Greek presbyteros. But as some say, etymology does not equal definition.)
There is a real problem with too many healthy people being "pinged" by the NHS Covid app and being forced to isolate. This is causing difficulties in many sectors, especially hospitality.
About as much sense as the online form to renew a driving licence requiring you to enter your gender as though that's relevant to driving ability. And, having made that necessary to then limit your options to just two genders. Does someone in the DVLA think that only cisgendered people can drive?
I suspect the limit to two genders is because of the way the driving licence number is created. If I was Celtic T Knotweed, male, born 11th December 1983, then it would be KNOTW812118CT9 and then 2 letters which act as a checksum. If I was female with that DOB, the licence number would be KNOTW862118CT9 and 2 letters acting as a checksum. (No, that isn't my DOB, or that of any relative). The system for creating it was set up whenever the licences were introduced in that format, and only allows for 2 methods of encoding the DOB, one for males, one for females.
I did once hear that the original plan had been to just use the same system irrespective of gender, but that someone had made a fuss about police officers being able to work out how old ladies they stopped were - might take that with a large pinch of salt though!
The California Department of Motor Vehicles online services. Fill out the form they say, easy as can be. I filled out the form, Mr. Image filled out the form. Our son on a totally different issue and day filled out the form. None of the things any of us requested, change of address, change of vehicle registration, new vehicle registration have taken place. They have no record of any of our requests, and yet they took our son's money and sent us new voter registration cards to our new address. Crazy making so an in-person trip is necessary, and not something Mr. Image is up to doing right now.
TICTH the driver of the 37 bus who probably saw me running for it but didn't wait and then when I thought I'd catch it at the next stop round the corner, didn't wait again.
May the fleas of a thousand camels infest his armpits.
TICTH the driver of the 37 bus who probably saw me running for it but didn't wait and then when I thought I'd catch it at the next stop round the corner, didn't wait again.
May the fleas of a thousand camels infest his armpits.
Telephone holding music - particularly the sort which is one or two bars repeated ad nauseum with an odd variation thrown in, the sort that becomes an ear worm and drives you crazy 🤬
Yes, you’ve guessed it, I was kept waiting to get through to a human when trying to arrange for some equipment to be repaired.
Virgin Mobile... That's the second time they've cancelled my UK mobile phone account and kept the cash left in it because I was using a great pay as you go plan. They said they texted a message to me, but it didn't reach Canada. E-mail is too old fashioned and too much work for them. Now I have to figure out a new phone plan before I get back, but it won't be Virgin. So happy to have helped finance Branson's sub-orbital space flight.
Thanks for posting that, Ann; David had an LP of Bob Newhart with that monologue on it, and I frequently think of Mrs. Selkirk whenever I'm being pirouetted to a seat!
All my landline calls go on my answerphone - and spam callers normally can't be bothered. All others can leave a message. And the mobile is turned off most of the time anyway.
In addition, I think, most providers here have spam call blockers which you can activate if you so choose. Clever stuff, this.
Comments
Which would be Right And Proper, I suppose...
Tomorrow I will have to get on the bus with it and take it back to the shop - it isn't heavy, but it is an awkward shape for a short person to carry. Thank goodness the bus is very unlikely to have many passengers
I expect they will screw on the feet for me because it's a hardware shop and they have tradespeople working there, and they are usually helpful, besides if they don't I shall thcream and thrcream until I'm thick (with apologies to Richmal Crompton - I think it was Violet Elizabeth who was the original thcreamer).
Meanwhile I will wear 5 layers to bed tonight including a hoodie. So much for sexy nightwear.. (sigh)
Whereas last night I was rifling the drawers for something light enough to wear to bed. Eventually came up with a top I bought in Valletta (all of 5€) which is just two squares of an ultra-thin fabric. Very sticky day culminating just now in a welcome shower.
Time to go and see if I need to do a Violet Elizabeth impression.
I took the heater to the shop and explained I didn't have a magnetic tipped screwdriver, the manual dexterity nor the patience to attach the feet - then it turned out that I didn't gave proof of purchase either, but they did it anyway. Actually the woman on the door said she would have vouched for me - one of the benefits of shopping close to home and being a frequent customer I think.
No , I cannot seek my information on your website as I need to speak to a real life person, who is not picking up their phone or answering their emails. But apparently still wants me to reply to them.
Sheesh.
I ‘ll be turning into a moss statue at this rate
.
* Now I think about it, he asked me to bring some of her books to him in hospital; Gaudy Night may have been the last book he (re)read before he died.
Yes, it's very Quaker, as we don't have Creeds don't expect Credal Statements, either Trinitarian or Unitarian. As much as anything it's a call for people to turn to the simplicity of Quaker worship and eschew the obscure distractions of other forms of worship. In some ways, it's odd that it's used as a hymn by groups whose practices that the full poem critiques. Personallly, I'd love to hear a full congregation and choir sing these verses of the poem to that familiar tune.
Some fever of the blood and brain,
Some self-exalting spell,
The scourger’s keen delight of pain,
The Dervish dance, the Orphic strain,
The wild-haired Bacchant’s yell,— 45
The desert’s hair-grown hermit sunk
The saner brute below;
The naked Santon, hashish-drunk,
The cloister madness of the monk,
The fakir’s torture-show! 50
And yet the past comes round again,
And new doth old fulfil;
In sensual transports wild as vain
We brew in many a Christian fane
The heathen Soma still!
[url="http://"]https://bartleby.com/372/197.html[/url]
Boy, was I shocked by my first meeting which resulted in a split vote.
But we were home to a number of Presbyterians, there being no home for ex-pat Scots in the vicinity.
I got an email this morning from the company that checks driving licenses for the insurance to drive work vehicles, informing me that my license has expired. Pull out my licence, and yes it has an expiry date of 6th July 2021. DVLA didn't bother to let me know it was due to expire or provide any information on how to renew it, so I did an internet search taking me to a DVLA page for renewal where I spend time going over the form a few times (which is probably not compliant with equality legislation!) getting the details in exactly as needed ... only to get told at the end that I can't renew it online. So, I'll need to risk my life and that of others by going into the Post Office in person to get my driving licence renewed.
Whinge 1: that I only new my licence had expired because I happen to be on the list of approved drivers for the works car and the company that runs that informed me. Surely that should be part of what the DVLA should do?
Whinge 2: that during a pandemic with record numbers of new cases daily I need to forego social distancing to renew the licence in person at the Post Office.
Whinge 3: how does an official government online form get away with being non-compliant with equality legislation?
It could be argued that it's you who benefits from having the driving licence, so it's up to you to make sure that the licence is still valid - that you can still benefit from having the licence. The personal responsibility aspect isn't all that far different from the expectation in UK tax law that it's up to the taxpayer to declare what tax they owe.
And do DVLA actually know - ten years on from the last issue of your licence - where you live? You're meant to tell them when you move but not everyone does (does anyone?). I've had a number of rather bumpy interactions with DVLA (only one of which admittedly was about a driving licence - the others were about road tax and vehicle licensing) which lead me to think that their IT is not of the best. So to get them to reliably know where you are such as to send you a reminder at the end of ten years would mean a big (and expensive) upgrade to their IT. I can see why HM Treasury might argue against this.
My photocard expired, but I was in the group of people granted an 11month extension, and I was under the impression that I would receive a reminder at the appropriate point in time...
Likewise, I will have to go to the Post Office to do it, which brings me to add a whinge to yours:
Whinge 4: why is it possible to submit a digital photo online to apply for a passport, but you can only apply for a driving license photocard online if you have a passport? Why is not possible to upload a digital photo (as you do for a passport)?
OK. It looks as if DVLA are meant to tell you after all. So
1) My elegant defence of why they don't write to you can be replaced with 'it looks like DVLA are a bunch of useless clowns'
2) Given that (by the sounds of things) your licence was updated 7 years ago, did that actually amount to a new licence being issued (which therefore has three years left to run)?
3) Does your employer have the same expiry date for your licence as the licence itself shows?
I'm now guessing that (1) may be true.
I was pretty impressed, but less impressed that this all costs more than renewing online, which you can only do with a passport (presumably because they ready have your photo verified for that).
This was all just before we moved, so I was able to change my address at the same time, and this alerted me to remind husband and son to change theirs: same passport procedure, but no fee.
Likewise, my passport has expired (about a month ago) and there seems little point paying for a new one until there's at least a prospect of going somewhere. If I hold off for a couple of years I might get to have a nice burgundy one with the words "European Union" still on it, and "Republic of Scotland". If I need one early I'll probably end up with one of those horrid Boris Blue ones they've started printing in France for the English.
It still makes no sense to me that you can submit a digital photo for a passport (which I don't currently have, hence needing to go to a Post Office), but not a driving licence.
I have occasionally been tempted to answer questions like M/F? with "Yes"
The new licence turned up very quickly, and in the same post I received an application form for said replacement licence - presumably in the nature of a reminder.
Should I complain that the DVLA didn't notice I'd already applied?
When that expired in autumn 2020, I applied for it to be renewed again, but was told I had to wait for the DVLC's Medical Team to receive confirmation from my consultant and GP that I was still OK to drive. This took quite a long time, owing to the pandemic, but eventually the new licence - using the mugshot from the previous issue - arrived (about 3 months ago).
In the meantime, the DVLC had provided me with an official letter confirming that I was allowed to drive, under the terms of the Road Traffic Act, as long as my health remained stable.
The paperwork all had to be done *by hand*, as it were, with no provision for online form-filling, but the DVLC were as prompt and efficient about it as they could be. The delay - of several months! - was due largely to the enormous backlog of work at King's College Hospital (I'm nearly a year overdue for my MRI scan).
Reading this makes me think no!
(Yes, I do know the English priest is derived from the Greek presbyteros. But as some say, etymology does not equal definition.)
Don't they have spare staff?
Quite, but it was late due to an Ongoing Police Situation in Falkirk.
I suspect the limit to two genders is because of the way the driving licence number is created. If I was Celtic T Knotweed, male, born 11th December 1983, then it would be KNOTW812118CT9 and then 2 letters which act as a checksum. If I was female with that DOB, the licence number would be KNOTW862118CT9 and 2 letters acting as a checksum. (No, that isn't my DOB, or that of any relative). The system for creating it was set up whenever the licences were introduced in that format, and only allows for 2 methods of encoding the DOB, one for males, one for females.
I did once hear that the original plan had been to just use the same system irrespective of gender, but that someone had made a fuss about police officers being able to work out how old ladies they stopped were - might take that with a large pinch of salt though!
May the fleas of a thousand camels infest his armpits.
School for Bus Drivers
Yes, you’ve guessed it, I was kept waiting to get through to a human when trying to arrange for some equipment to be repaired.
Thanks for posting that, Ann; David had an LP of Bob Newhart with that monologue on it, and I frequently think of Mrs. Selkirk whenever I'm being pirouetted to a seat!
Especially early morning ones to Mr Alba’s phone
I get such calls (I think - I never answer them) at such times as silly o'clock 6am, which is when I usually get my best sleep...
(Memo to self - unplug landline when retiring to bunk...)
In addition, I think, most providers here have spam call blockers which you can activate if you so choose. Clever stuff, this.
Nasty peeps, spam callers.