xendistar.co.uk

Had a run in with the aforementioned white van man yesterday, driving up the A34 towards the Hinksey roundabout. As I approached the on slip, I was on the inside lane, there was a long train of vehicle coming down the on-slip but I could not move out of the inside due to a car on my outside. This did not seem to worry white van man, he just crossed the cheveron area (narrowly missing the grass) on to the inside lane in front of me forcing me to brake a swerve out off the inside lane (fortunately the car that was along side me had gone past) into the out side lane. I have to be say there was a fair amount of horning blowing and waving of arms on my part, all I got back from white van man was a “who me”? look I sometimes wonder where some people get their driving license from.

Now a tale of customer service, first good customer service. I arrived back home last night and as I walked into the house I thought it was cold, checked the central heating pipe in the hall and they were stone cold, checked the boiler clock and the lights were indicating the boiler was on. Checking the boiler there was no pilot light, I relit the pilot light but still the boiler failed to function. I had this really bad feeling about the central heating at this stage.

The wife remembered that we should of had the boiler serviced back in December as part of the deal we have with our gas\electric supplier, so she phoned them up. By the time she got through it was 6:30pm, she explained the missed boiler service and the now dead boiler to the guy on the phone who replied “thats ok, you have 24\7 support on your central heating”

This surprised both of us but we sure as hell were not going to complain, we were duly booked in for an emergency call out and told an engineer will be with us in the next 12 hours and yes that did mean even at the early am hours!! Thankfully just before 9pm an engineer turned and had our boiler sorted working in less than 10 minutes, it seems that when somebody relit the pilot light they forgot to turn the dial another quarter of a turn which allows the boiler to fire up. My excuse is that it was only the 2nd time in 9 something years that I have had to light the boiler.

Now bad customer service. I ordered two laptop for work back at the start of January, at no time was I made aware of the fact that the said laptops were out of stock, I was even given a delivery date, when the delivery date came and went with no laptops, I phoned to find out where they were. Apparently they were out of stock, the story has progressed with broken promises, e-mail sent with no replies, phone calls not returned and promised not honoured. This is not a large multi national, this a major local company who could of got all our business, it now looks like that possibility has gone the same way as their delivery dates.

Well that is it till the weekend, bye

That is so true, you can spend all day worrying about tomorrow, that before you know it tomorrow has arrived and you have to face up to what you were\are worrying about.

In my case “my tomorrow” is a couple of months away, yet the time will no doubt fly by. I have no control over what is going to happen, I only have control over preparing for when it does happen. It is sometime very difficult to remember that and it is not helped by the fact that some of the preparation can be a bit unpalatable but has to be done. It is also not helped by the fact that it is the season of goodwill when everybody is supposed to be happy. Well I am trying to be but it is not easy.

Yes I am being cryptic about what is going on suffice to say I tell you when I have it settled in my mind…….

While I am having a moan, Things I hate about other drivers………………, the driver that slowly overtakes you on a dual carriageway and then cuts back in front of you narrowly missing your front bumper and then brakes, why overtake me if you are going to slow down? I have had this happen to me twice in the last three days.

Driving, I think we all know there are some right muppets on the road and if we are honest with ourselves we have all done something stupid while driving. But having said that it does not make you feel any better when somebody stupidly pulls out in front of you…………..and then stops there!!

On my way through Worthing yesterday near the hospital on the A27 (I think), saw a car waiting in a side road on my left to pull out and turn right, then when I am no more than 40yds from the junction he pulls out in front of me and then stops as there is traffic coming the other way, not sure how I missed him I just hit the brakes. The ABS came into operation and I stopped just short of ramming his drivers door. I got nothing from the driver apart from a horrified look as he pulled away and disappeared off down the road.

What can be more simple than mounting a cabinet on a the wall?? I marked the wall where I wanted it. I even marked the cabinet to ensure the correct orientation, so can you spot the deliberate mistake in the picture below?

If you still can't see it, look at the label on left hand side of the cabinet!!

Communication companies, why are they so bad at communicating?? Lodged a complaint for the third time on Sunday still waiting for a reply. The auto reply I got said we will be back to you within 5 days (5 days in these modern times is woeful), well today is the fifth day, anyone want to take bets on me getting a reply??

Going for a ride over the Southdowns tomorrow, hopefully I will take my riding legs with me unlike last night ride…..

On my way up the A34 this morning I decided to get some fuel before I got onto the M40, I filled the tank to the top which brought the cost into 3 figures and headed to the shop to pay. As I waited in the queue I got my wallet out to get the company credit card ready to slot in the machine (I hate those people who will queue for a couple of minutes and then get to the cashier desk not ready to pay and then faff around making me queue longer). To my horror I could not find my credit card and every passing second I was getting closer to the front of the queue………. On reaching the desk I told the cashier that my credit card was missing, he simply asked me if there was somebody I could phone who could pay, his question jolted my brain out of panic mode and back into reality mode. I quickly phoned one of the company directors, explained the situation and then passed the phone over to the cashier. While they were sorting out the payment I was scratching my head as to where my credit card was.

Once payment was made I apologised for causing the problem and quickly headed back to my vehicle. As I headed back onto the A34 I phoned my daughter at home and asked her to do a search of my desk encase I had left it on my desk while working from home. She searched over my desk while I was on the phone and then asked the obvious question, where did you use it last, I thought for a few seconds and then realised it was on Saturday at the services on the M27 to get fuel. My daughter said she would phone the motorway services and see if my card had been found at the service station. As I waited for her to call me back my mind was trying to work out how I was going to explain losing my credit card to the director. I was quickly brought back to reality when the phone rang, it was my daughter with good news, the card was at the service station on the M27. All I had to do was pop in and collect on my return journey this afternoon.

I have never felt so relieved, it was so horrible just not knowing where it was and not being able to remember where I last used it. I can’t work out how I managed to leave my card at the petrol station cash desk. I was lucky apparently as they normally only keep cards for four days before destroying the card and informing the credit card company, today was the fourth day.

Several years ago I went to a petrol station and filled the car up with fuel and then realised I did not have my wallet with me. Since then I always check my pocket to make sure my wallet is there as I drive down the road, think I might need to start checking the contents.

Last night was weigh-in night, and it was a good weigh-in for me, 2lb off. Just need to stick to the straight and narrow eating wise and keep that downwards trend.

No it is not some Microsoft chat service but something most driver of a certain age will understand (or least had to understand to pass certain driving tests). Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre – MSM, what you should do for instant when you wish to change lanes on a motorway or dual carriageway. Unlike the dipstick on Saturday who thought it was proper to just change lanes into the lane I was driving in just as you reach his rear bumper with no signalling and no checking of mirrors and then wonders why the driver behind him is getting so agitated………

I was having to work on Saturday which involved a 2.5 hr drive to Northampton, well it should of been 2.5 hours, by the time we got to Northampton it was just short of 4 hours. We spent 1.5 hours sat in the classic car traffic jam on the A43 near Silverstone, apparently they were holding a Classic Car auction. Mind you I should imagine it was one of the most expensive traffic jams I have sat in, we were surround by E-Type Jags (must have seen at least 20), AC Cobra’s, Austin Healey, Aston Martin, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Ferrari (various), Ford GT40 (probably a replica), TVR’s Ginetta, Triumph TR5, TR6, Stag, Morgan, Corvette plus many I did not recognise. At least it helped with the delay having something nice to look at.

Due to the delays getting to Northampton and then the job taking longer than intended, I did not get back in time for a ride. I wanted to do a couple of jobs on the bike pre-ride and it was early evening before I had finished. Last time I rode Saturday night and then again Sunday morning my legs were like lead so I gave it a miss.

Sunday dawned to the sound of my alarm clock, I quickly turned it off turned over and went back to sleep for an hour, eventually got up at 7am. This morning ride was the Throop Loop and a visit to Avon Heath Country park (I have been calling it Ashley Heath for some reason). The past couple of weeks I have been riding around what is called South Park which is the section of the country park which is on the south side of Boundary lane. Well according to the nice Dorset Countryside Ranger they don’t encourage cyclist in the South Park but they are happy for them to ride in the North Park which sits between Boundary Lane and the A31. I thanked him and headed for North Park. All in all not a bad ride, another 30 odd miles.

During the ride my Bottom Bracket was letting me know it was not happy, I narrowed the problem down to the left hand-side (as you sit on the bike). On closer inspection back home the bearing did not look to good so I gave it a good clean and re-greased it (did both sides) and will see what it says on the next ride.