I'm getting these calls multi times a day. They start by talking about investments I haven't made. The person on the other end often mumbles and it's difficult to understand what they are saying. Often they refer to me as "mate" which I most certainly am not. When I say I'm not interested, the insults and abuse start.
I have no idea how they got hold of my number as I'm very careful about who I give it to. As a result I will no longer answer any calls that I can't identify.
The last one used phrases I don't intend repeating here but one of the mildest was calling me a "piece of s--t" and then telling me that they intend continuing to phone me because of this fact. I think I've been insulted by this charmer before. If you are a scammer which these people obviously are, it would be a better strategy not to insult the person you are calling. Do they really think anyone is going to have a reasonable conversation with them?
Things are much better with Eon although technically I don't exist but at least they are polite about this fact.
I have had a minor problem in not being able to access my gas and electricity accounts online. I have been able to get my solar panel account but not the dual energy. Despite this they keep sending me statements that inform me that I can save over £100 a year by switching to their cheapest tariff. They point out that switching couldn't be simpler and can be done through my online account. Problem is I can't access this online account.
We sent them three or four emails pointing this out and got no response and then we phoned them and that brought no joy. So when they asked us to fill in a satisfaction survey about how they had handled our query, we let rip. We gave them one star and the review went onto Trust Pilot and brought an instant response from them. Strange how bad publicity usually draws a response.
A very helpful lady by the name of Siobhan has been trying to sort the problem out. Her main problem has been that she hasn't been able to track down our account despite the fact that they have regularly been sending us letters and I pay every month by Direct Debit to that account. After all this time I'm beginning to think that perhaps I don't exist! Perhaps I'm an AI invention.
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A few days ago one of those memories from years gone by came up on my Facebook feed. It included what I thought was three very nice photographs taken by the other four fifths a few years ago. I pasted them to my personal Facebook page and thought they were worth repeating in this blog. So you have a photo taken on Martha's Vineyard in the USA, a photo taken on Cape Cod also in the USA and one taken in the fields around Hethersett which is not in the USA, although Donald Trump might wish to buy the village as he failed to purchase Greenland. That fact came up on a quiz show yesterday..
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A couple of days ago I picked up a rather weighty tome by Maureen Lipman entitled "Post It Notes". It was a compendium of her various columns for newspapers and magazines. A kind of scrapbook or blog if you like. I saw similarities between her writing and my own - well I can dream can't I?
Post It Notes wasn't a very apt title though as one of the post its ran to several thousand of words. Try getting that lot on a post It note.
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Have to return to Donald Trump in a round about way.
If you haven't realised they are building up to an election across the pond. We are as well but we do it in a more measured and quiet way where the only real way of campaigning is to slag off the opposition.
But when it comes to slagging off the opposition we don't even touch the surface compared to America. I will go no further but even I was shocked when one woman leered at the camera with a threatening look on her face.
She screamed something about there being a civil war if Trump didn't get elected ( or should that be re-elected if there's been a gap between his elections)? "We will grab our guns," she shouted. Incendiary stuff. It used to be a crime to voice such stuff but now I guess it's ok just like calling somebody a piece of s--t on their own phone. Donald Trump severely slandered a High Court Judge, calling him incompetent and corrupt. So it seems that anything goes.
I have mixed views on the possible ban on smoking. Smoking has never been illegal, so is it right to now make it so for certain people with age being the deciding factor?
But more difficult will be trying to work out who is banned from buying cigarettes and who isn't.
It might be fairly easy to decide who is 15 and who is 21 but move forward 20 years and those people will be 35 and 41 and it will often be difficult to tell who can legally buy cigarettes and who cant' or are the government suggesting some kind of ID system?
"Excuse me sir can you prove that you are over 35."