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

Just thought I would pop on here and talk to myself for 5 minutes. Thankfully the pains in my calf muscle from the weekend cramps has now gone, only to be replaced by headaches, snotty nose and sore throat, yes I have the onset of man flu, oh joy.

The wife has been told her last day will be the 31st Jan, not what we really wanted to hear but we needed to know so that we can start to sort a few things out. She had an interview last week and was told that she was second pick if the first girl declined the offer. For some reason I would prefer not to know, knowing you were second just make you feel worse.

You know the saying, if it was not for bad luck I would have no luck at all? that exactly how I feel at the moment. I have only been out riding once in the last 10 days and that was with my son and the ride ended with my forks giving up the ghost. I noticed that I lost all but a inch of travel (as opposed to the 4 it should have). Once home no amount of gentle coaxing or strong expletive language could bring them, back to working order, they were going to need a professional service. Now the last thing I needed now was a repair bill just before xmas but had I not decided to get them repaired it meant no riding over xmas and new year for me. I did consider servicing the forks myself but decided not as there is a difference in carrying out a service and repairing a set of faulty forks and I wanted them working by Xmas eve so there was not a lot of time to mess around.

A quick check around the Internet and TFTuned seemed to be the people to service my Rockshox Forks . To be honest I did try another company but after four attempts during the day they failed to pick up the phone (and still have not returned my answer phone message I left). So a quick call to TFTuned so see if there were any inherent faults or any other sort of gotcha with these forks to which they said there was not. So Monday night I filled in the online service request form and parcelled up the forks for their trip to TFTuned on Tuesday.

This morning just after 11am I got a phone call from TFTuned saying the forks were ready, a complete service, all new seals throughout the forks and a bill for £89. On the one hand it is an expense I could do with out, on the other it is cheaper than a new pair of forks and now I will be able to ride over the Xmas and New year break, so it is win win for me…………….what do you mean how? I now can’t afford an xmas booze so I won’t ruin my dieting by drinking and I can carry on riding to help with my weight loss, well that is my story and I am sticking to it.

Hopefully I will be doing my traditional Christmas eve ride, done it for the last couple of years, weather is looking OK. Then hopefully I will be out for a early Boxing day ride.

As for the rest of life it is a right pain in the rear, work is nothing but a nightmare at the moment, I think somebody has tied a target on my back as most of the agro seems to be directed in my direction at the moment. My other problem, or rather the other half problem of being made redundant on Jan 31st is not really helping matters, neither was a decline after what she thought was a successful job interview today. Seem to remember being in a similar position this time last year.

Now for the not very regularly ABS (Arse Behind a Steeringwheel) Award goes to a driver on the M3 this morning just south of J9 A34. I was on the inside lane which becomes the slip road while the middle and outside lane continue on as the M3, I was going a bit faster than the car in the middle lane and the lane marking between lane 1 (sliproad) and lane 2 (now lane 1) had changed to show that I was clearly now on the slip road, so what does the ABS do, move and indicate (in that order) onto the now slip road narrowly missing my front bumper because he did not like me undertaking him. He then realises that he is now on the slip road for the A34 and promptly moves back into the now inside lane of the M3 and accelerates away.

Yesterday ABS Award goes to the little old lady in her silver Micra who waited until the lorry was about 50yds from the junction before pulling out in front of him, thankfully there was nothing coming in the other direction and the lorry was able to swerve onto the other side of the road to avoid her whilst locking everything up in a clouds of blue tyre smoke. I was speechless at her stupidity, I not sure what the lorry driver said but I some how don’t think it was printable judging by the hand gesticulation I could see in his cab mirror.

I dragged my self out for a ride Sunday morning more for the fact that I was determined not to miss another ride than wanting to go out for a ride. While it was not raining it had been and was quite wet. Even as I pushed the bike up the drive I still had not decided where to ride, over the local heath or a normal Sunday loop around Throop. The local heath would be more interesting but the shorter ride and obviously Throop would be less entertaining but a longer ride, Throop won.

As expected it was quite muddy in places, I tried some trails I had not ridden for a while and found one that I don’t think I have ever ridden. It did not take log for my legs to start complaining, not sure if it was the lack of riding or the amount of mud I was trying to get through. I should of taken a picture of the bike when I got back it was covered in mud.

I had intended to go for a ride tonight, well one night this week. It won’t be Wednesday as I am up to early and knackered by the time I get back and Thursday they forecast gales and heavy rain, Friday night is shopping night so that only leaves Tuesdays, it never happened. Not sure why just did not have the get up and go (I think it got up and went…)

If you have wondered how the weight loss is going then don’t, it just not happening at the moment, my mined is else where at the moment and times like this I eat, not a good combination.

The Internet, why is that the one thing communication companies can’t do, is communicate, I mean I have been promised call backs by Virgin media regarding my Internet access (which has got better but not what it should be) and I get nothing. Yesterday at work I call BT because we had a problem with a phone system, they will call you back within 4 hours sir I was told, so why was it this morning (20 hours later) that I got a call from BT far east support centre asking me what the problem was, are they as bad at reading English as they are speaking or listening to it that they could not understand the notes they had been given . So 4 hours after fixing the problem the problem reoccurred, oh hum. But why are they so bad, BT are honestly the worst company I have to deal with, they are so incompetent and stuck so far up their own rear, it does not bear thinking about. They have a monopoly on telecoms in this country (ok the monopoly is not as bad as it was) they just think they can do what they like and please don’t mention Ofcom, they are a toothless tiger. Complained to Ofcom once about BT complaints department, what did they do, pass it onto BT Complaints!!

Right I am stopping, I am starting to rant, peace and love, peace and love…….

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.