I sent BT an email recently asking for an interim bill. My email consisted of:
Hi. On account foo, can I get an interim bill please. I’ve registered online, but it’s not pulling up my details. Thanks.
The reply, which makes me wonder what they thought I was writing was this:
Dear Mr Treharne
Thank you for your e-mail regarding an interim bill.
I would like to begin by offering my sincere apologies for the inconvenience and distress you have undoubtedly been caused. In response to your e-mail, I would like to inform you that I have gone ahead and converted your billing type from paper bill to dual billing. It would take 5 to 7 working days for your online account to start.
As per your request, if you want an interim bill, please send us your consent. The sublet statement would cost you £4.70 and it would reach your billing address within the next 7 working days.
I trust that this email will have helped to provide you with the clarification needed and I hope that it has also demonstrated to you that your concerns have been looked into thoroughly and professionally. Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience you may have been caused and my thanks for your patience and co-operation in this matter.
If you should have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact us again via e-mail or kindly contact customer services at 0800 800 150 (08:00 AM to 08:00 PM, Monday to Saturday). This number is free from BT’s landline. Thank you for contacting BT.
Yours sincerely,
[…]
I mean, that’s suitable for a response to a complaint, but it’s a little OTT for a simple request.
So I timed my 2-mile route this morning and I’ve got it down to 44 mins 50s, though my hayfever is playing up and it’s giving me asthma which is annoying as hell. Especially as my inhaler is still buried in the pile of crap that came back from Cheddar. It’s there somewhere…
To be fair, I haven’t been religiously running/jogging/walking in the mornings for various reasons – mainly that I’m exhausted. But I did have a healthy meal (Ok, mostly healthy – reshaped chicken, fresh steamed veg and fresh couscous) last night, and I went to bed around 2230, so I got a good night’s sleep. Hopefully I can do something similar on Friday night and really kick myself into a more healthy routine. Sean, however, will be rather updset when he comes to visit, because my routine involves getting up bloody early…0545 at the moment. I wonder if he’ll join me on the run… 🙂
On the bright side (or perhaps not) I’m running out of clothes. The biggest trousers I ever bought was a huge 42″ waist (only one pair, and they were fairly loose on me). When I moved to Cardiff, I was comfortable in a 40″. Today, looking for something to wear, I’m needing a belt with a 38″ waist pair of jeans. *big grin* Shortly, I may be down to a 36″…I hope.
So, things are looking better. The rest of my life is still in a bit of disarray, but I’m definately feeling better about myself – I’m lighter than I have been since I stopped smoking when I came back from Indiana.
Tip of the day dialogue boxes. Great idea, I quite like them as it often gives me something I never knew about before.
Today’s tip was just stupid. For a piece of software that tracks your time on different projects so that you can bill the customer: “Put a description of what you’re doing into the description box.”
Well, no shit Sherlock. Honestly people, please.
Look out, Canadians – probably something you’re quite used to according to the BBC are bears coming out of hibernation and looking for food, however, you may not want to sleep in the little bear’s bed and eat his porridge according to this BBC news article.
Well, what a weekend.
We had a fantastic time training in Cheddar this weekend. The place we stayed was incredible (there will be pics soon), absoutely stunning with some great people there. The rockfaces were fun (including the falling boulders!) and we did some excellent training – perhaps not everything that we wanted to get done, but we certainly got value out of the time. Personally, I brushed up on some of my rope working skills, exercised my skills at looking at belay locations and looked at how flexible our systems can be when changing the anchors around, yet keeping the same basic components in place. I also brushed up my stretcher-handling and rigging skills, which to be honest I needed. Today, I worked on something new – pick-offs. It’s basically when a rescuer is lowered to a casualty, the rescuer attaches the casualty to the rescue system and finally they’re both lowered to the ground. It can be used for uncooperative casualties as well, which is something I worked on today – trying to take Dave off the rockface, as he was pretending to be a scared and crag-fast casualty. Much fun.
So after coming home and sitting down for all of 30 seconds, I found that my Internet connection was down. After digging a bit, I realise that it’s not, it’s just I’ve been migrated to my new ADSLMax connection. Woohoo. A little playing and I’m now on my nice fast connection, currently hitting 6.7Mbps.
I managed to get it working just in time, as I was just sorting out some stuff downstairs and finding my hayfever stuff when Sean came online. Woot. *grin* So we talked for a while – I hadn’t realised how much I missed hearing his voice every night, I mean we talk about stupid stuff sometimes, and I wondered whether it was worth not talking for a few days just so we had something more interesting to talk about, but the last few nights I’ve been missing his voice a lot, especially with his rather unfortunate time in customs.
So now I need to sort out the bedroom – the window has been open for the last few weeks and the place is full of pollen – when I went to bed before I left, I was having awful hayfever attacks after I went to bed, so I need to change my bedclothes and hoover everything in that room, including the blinds, and anywhere where pollen could land – thankfully, I have a Dyson with a HEPA filter, so it’s not a problem. It is, however, a pain in the arse – if anyone wants to make money, find a cure for hayfever. Please.
Well, just a very quick update as I’m using someone else’s laptop.
We arrived in Swallet Farm near Cheddar yesterday and had a nice evening mostly chilling out. Today has been much fun, with lots of horizontal lowers and pick-offs on the rockface. Both mobile and internet reception here are dodgy to say the least, it’s a struggle getting a signal at all, though a few text messages are getting through. Frustratingly, the one time I did have reception today was at the top of the crag, and when Sean called, (FROM CANADA!!) I was actually halfway down the rockface! Argh! I was pissed I missed him because I’ve been a little bit worried about him. Hopefully I can talk to him tomorrow night.
Anyway, off to learn some more about Rigging For Rescue now. Toodlepip.
What a night.
I went to bed around 0100 after talking to Sean – he’s arrived in Canada which was not without its drama but nothing he couldn’t handle, bless ‘im.
So 0300 I was up getting druugs. My hayfever was the worst it’s been in years, actually waking me up and not letting me go back to sleep. So I took a full set, antihistamines, decongestant tablet and spray and eye drops, the whole works. Off back to sleep…
…only to be dragged into life again about 20 minutes ago with the pagers going off. Apparently there’s a search on for a chap in Neath who has serious head injuries. Only one Landrover is going because of our Cheddar training and I can’t afford the diesel in mine and Chris, who’s giving me a lift to Cheddar, isn’t going either, so I’m about to go back to bedto get some more sleep before we leave for Cheddar. Hayfever is still back with a vengeance at the moment. Joy.
*sneezes*
Jon and I popped over to Cathays Park this afternoon for lunchtime as we typically do when the weather’s nice (Note: must take some photographs of the area one day). We usually sit in the sunshine muching away and putting the world in its place.
Today was a continuation of the recent theme which is relationships, unsurprisingly, something that’s dominated our conversations of late mainly due to the much celebrated and recent arrival of a certain young man in my life *waves*. Much of the conversation was taken up with my concerns that this relationship is limiting Sean at a time when I’m not sure that he needs to be being tied down in that way (shush, Jon). This in no way reflects my feelings for him – well, actually that’s not true, it does because I care enough about him to be worried about him. But my feelings for him are entirely positive, it’s just I worry about what impact this will have for him. We’ve had no cause for concern so far – in fact quite the opposite, we seem to be going from strength to strength, but I do worry about him. I suppose that’s only natural.
The other musing that was discussed today was the different attitudes between Nathan and Sean towards Mountain Rescue. Now Nathan and I had been seeing each other for some time before I started going to MR, so for Nathan it was a change. For Sean, he’s only known me whilst that has been a part of my life, so for him it’s just part of me, which is a big difference. But more than that, I realised that Nathan’s main reason for his negative feelings towards MR disappeared in two stages. The first was when he did his advanced first aid course with the University. He started to appreciate more the feeling of responsibility that comes with medical training of any sort – the burden of “duty of care” that means that you do realise that you can make a difference and that you have more training than most people and the responsibility that places upon you to help any innocent bystander who is having difficulties whether you’re ‘on duty’ or not (whatever that means in your context). I think he realises a lot better now how I feel about what I do with the team, and the internal battle I have when the pager goes off between my responsibilities to the team, and everything else in life. I know that when that pager goes I could be the difference between someone dying or living.
Secondly, I think Nathan realised when he started seeing Gavin that interests outside the relationship are healthy and good. Spending time doing other things away from the relationship is good – it’s not an indication that I don’t want to be with my partner, it’s just that I have other interests that don’t necessarily have to be his interests. Moreover, it’s probably best that they aren’t because then we have something to talk about, although Sean has expressed an interest in perhaps joining a team which would be fantastic. *grin*
I do hope that Sean’s understanding of MR and my intentions are along those lines and not just a tolerance of something that he finds an irritation – I’m fairly sure it is (though I guess I’ll found out in a few hours time…). I did, however, spend some time looking at my personal goals after breaking up with Nathan as is reflected in my personal mission statement, and I have said that I wouldnever again put anything before a relationship. Not that I should give everything up just to be with someone – that would be wrong; but that I prioritise things properly. I think Sean understands that I’m still learning where that line lies.
Anyway, er that’s plenty of introspective mumblings for today I think.
[1] Not to inflate my self-worth with the team I understand that the role that I play within the team, especially as such a junior member, is very small, but like a machine, th team works together and while we are flexible in our roles and what people we have, it could be that I am that pivotal one day. You never know which day that will be.
Ok so that title’s got nothing to do with this post, but it’s a cool title for something. Discussed at length this mornign, it was one of the occasional pearls that I get.
Sean’s probably at Gatwick by now getting ready to get on his flight which leaves in an hour or so. He was worrying about his packing last night, but I think he’s got everything other than the kitchen sink packed. *grin* I’m off this weekend down to Cheddar with the team for our annual summer exercise, which I’m really looking forward to. I might even get all geeky and blog from there, complete with photos. 🙂
In the meantime, I have an email cluster-fuck to try and sort out. Joy.
So this three-way conversation is very odd.
I’m on the phone to Sean. Sean is on Sype to Jon. Jon and I are in the office together. It’s almost, but not quite a three-way conversation. Makes for amusing misunderstandings…most of which are on purpose.
*giggle*