When you listen in on someone else's phonecall

I was chatting with my neighbour, soon to be 100, when her phone rang. Being hard of hearing she sets her phone to speakerphone so I heard both sides of the conversation.

The caller was ringing on behalf of ‘Gym and Tonic’ – Would she be interested in a membership at the newly opened gym?

H replied that as she was nearly 100 she was not interested in joining the gym.

The caller expressed amazement and said she sounded no more than 50. (How do you tell that from someone’s phone voice?).

The caller then asked would anyone else in the family be interested in a gym membership. H politely told them that no-one else in her family would be interested in a gym membership and ended the call.

We laughed at the picture conjured up by H working out in the gym.

I think it’s tough to make a living by telesales.

Signs of Autumn

In spite of the Indian summer of the last few days, the trees have already started to change their colours and are beginning to shed their leaves. Walking round the estate with my trusty camera I found lots of early autumn colours. There are patches of mushrooms growing in the grass and the abundance of garden cross spiders is most likely due to this year’s warm damp summer.

Especially for you RM, the colours of early autumn. They will be even brighter in a couple of week’s time.

Memories of Robert the Bruce

Going to put some materials in the recycling bin – the bin is due to be emptied tomorrow – I found the path to the bin was blocked by a spider’s web and the spider was waiting in the centre ready for some dinner to fly his way. There was no way through except by breaking the web and though I didn’t like to do this I needed to get at the bins. So I gently broke the thread from its anchor in the bushes on one side of the path and placed it on the bushes on the other side of the path. The spider was safe but now its web was useless as a food trap.

By the time I had finished working at the recycling bins, the matter of a few minutes, the spider had summed up its predicament and was busily making a new web in the bushes on just one side of the path.

It reminded me of the story of Robert the Bruce who, defeated in battle, was hiding in a cave from his pursuers. He noticed a spider having to persevere, making many attempts to span a wide gap to make its web – he decided that all was not lost and that he would try again to defeat his enemies in battle. (And next time he was the victor in the battle) Then there are many tales of people hiding from their enemies in a cave and not being discovered because a spider wove its web across the entrance, suggesting to pursuers that no-one could have entered the cave as the web was intact.

They should have studied the behaviour of spiders.

It's a small world

My elderly neighbour, almost 100 years old, and a long retired farmer’s daughter and farmer’s wife, has quite a collection of books on farming themes. 

I spotted the autobiography of a vet whose name was familiar to me from many years ago.  When my younger sister was training to be a vet, she had work experience at his veterinary practice (quite a prestigious placement since he was famous in the UK as 'the television vet').  My sister was not impressed with him as he told her that she was wasting a university place that should have been given to a boy.  It had the effect of making her determined to prove him wrong.

He was also the vet for my neighbour’s farm animals and she said what an excellent vet he was, working very hard whenever he was called to their farm – he became a friend as well.

Having read his autobiography I have to admire him for the way he battled through the adversity of childhood poverty, and worked hard to achieve his qualifications.

I don’t think this would impress my sister though!

Exercise is good for you.

I have decided to try out zamba – some colleagues from my former place of employment have taken up this form of exercise and they enjoy themselves trying to coordinate arm and leg movements in time to the music. The only trouble with joining my friends is that it means a ten mile journey there and the same journey back which takes time and costs petrol.

I found out that a zamba class takes place in a nearby school (about 250yards from my front door) so I went to my first session tonight. The instructor welcomed me and found me some water to drink during the session. Next time I go to zamba I shall take some water and a towel – both useful for coping with the pace she sets.

I have discovered that if I concentrate really hard I can cope with the footwork, or with the arm movements, but not both at the same time. With practise I may well get them to co-ordinate! The gyrations – well everybody else is having to concentrate on their own efforts and will be much too busy to notice that I sometimes do and sometimes don’t!

At the end of the session the instructor said we should burn off 600 calories if we joined in for the whole session. That seems a lot – I’ll be content to feel fitter and if I lose weight – that’s a bonus.

Moan of the month

Is it just in my imagination, or do some large companies treat their customers with contempt.

I pay insurance cover for my washing machine so that should it break down the cost of repairing or replacing is covered. At the beginning of August I renewed my insurance cover and received an agreement letter. Paragraph 3 stated ‘Please check the above details are correct. If they are not, write ….. who will make the necessary corrections and reissue etc.’

On checking, the agreement document had the machine details incorrect. The procedure was followed and today I have received the new agreement. It is word for word absolutely identical, with the wrong information restated.

The final paragraph informed me the Customer Services team would be happy to help if I had a query and that I could telephone them.

So this is where the story gets silly!

I phoned and spoke to D – she told me that it didn’t matter about the incorrect details as they couldn’t be altered as HEAD OFFICE had set up the letter. She had no way of explaining to me why I needed to write about incorrect information that could not be altered. So I asked to speak to a supervisor or manager. Hold on please ….. After a minute D came back on the line and told me that what she had told me was correct and that the supervisor would only tell exactly the same as she had told me. So I repeated the request to speak to a supervisor and got the same response! I asked again to speak to a supervisor or manager and I eventually wore down her resistance and she asked me to hold on.

This time I had to wait about three minutes before I got a reply. Supervisor VK spoke to me now and gave me exactly the same reply as D. She could not explain why the request was made to write to the company if details were incorrect when no changes could be made. She did not feel it was a problem (By now, I was considering it a matter of principle) I asked who else I could speak to and was informed that the agreement letter format was “set in stone” and could not be changed. (What sort of business can prosper with this sort of “set in stone” attitude?) I began to feel that I was banging my head against a brick wall – or should that be a stone wall.

I said that I would need to write to Head Office to ask for an explanation as the ‘happy to help’ Customer services team were unable to help. DK informed me that all Head Office would do would be to forward the letter to Customer Services who would then reissue an agreement identical to the two I already have.

I really feel I should be saying to myself I’ve wasted enough time on the matter – I have better things to do with my time etc - and let the matter drop. But perhaps when I have three hours with nothing better to do to pass the time …. I will write to them.