It’s a Blog ! Not a Log !

Well Christmas is over & done with & it’s back to work tomorrow, just 8hrs left of my hol’s

After many telephone conversations and losing about 4hrs of my life, National Grid are paying me compensation, all be it £120′s worth, was hoping for more for the inconvenience they caused, but alas that’s all we are getting.

As you may have seen from an earlier post, we had our gas cut off by National Grid while we were on holiday, they were installing new pipework in the street and to the adjoining houses.

Well after 4 days and me highlighting my blog post to the @nationalgriduk on twitter we finally had our gas restored and we submitted a complaint verbally via the man who rang me from National Grid.

Move forward 10 days, not had a reply from National Grid re: My complaint, also the hole they redug to reconnect us still not filled in . . so my girlfriend rings up and complains, still nobody contacts us.

Day 13/14 still nobody contacts us, so we ring them, get told they tried ringing us, but as our number won’t accept annoymous calls they can’t contact us, well how about you get a line manager to ring us on his mobile or surely you must have a line out of National Grid that does’nt annoymise your number.

Informed that someone called round on the 12/13 day to do the repairs but could’nt gain access to our ginnel because it was locked, well for a start as we’ve explained on numerous occasions to them we both work and the earliest anyone can be home is 3:00pm, and sorry but I am not unlocking the gate that leads to our back garden and leaving it open all day, because I can promise you this if someone robbed my house or my garden shed because we’d left the gate unlocked all day for National Grid to gain access I can’t see National Grid  paying out for anything that gets nicked can you . . .

So again explained that someone would be at home today from 3:00pm

Then informed that  Kate is dealing with it and she will contact me, and get the issue resolved, so left it at that, but also contacted @nationalgriduk by twitter again to ask them to contact me Re: The gentleman there dealing with my complaint

No answer from them on twitter until some 8hrs later .  apologising and saying someone would contact me today, however again no call back at work today from either Kate or @nationalgriduk , so ring them up tonight again to find out what the fcuk is going on . .

Get through to a girl on the phone, give her my name and my postcode and then informed that they dont have a Mr Elgey at my address, they have Mr Jennel listed for that address, so I explain again who I am and that I wish to speak to a Line Manager, asked to hold, so I hold, again told a Mr Jennel lives at my address, again explain that he does’nt . . .  I live there.

I start to explain all over again about all the issues and comedy moments I’ve had with National Grid over the past 18 days and finally get round to the bit about how they reconnected us, but still have’nt made good the repairs to our ginnel pavement, at this point the penny drops with both the girl on the phone and me, someone at National Grid has changed the name on my details from Mr Elgey to Mr Jennel (spelt ginnel).

Finally they start to listen to what I’m saying . . .  oh by the way they’ve still not got me a Line Manager, even though I requested to speak to one at leat 2-3 times during the conversation . .

I’m again told Kate will contact me and I again explain to them they can’t ring me because our line won’t take annoymous calls, and inform them to contact me at work or come after 3:00pm, explain that this is exactly what I told them yesterday and on previous calls and I find it extremely hard to beleive or trust that someone will actually contact me.

Girl goes over notes with me again and call ends on promises . .  and me just wasting another 30minutes of my life . .

I’ve also contacted @nationalgriduk on twitter again and vented my spleen so to speak with them and again been promised a call back tomorrow . .  they’ve said they’ll raise it with their complaints dept and someone will contact me . .  here hoping . . .

discussing the pros and cons of the iPad 2

Well Saturday we got back from our holidays to discover while we’ve been away National Grid have been replacing all the pipes and gas meters on our close, nice of them to let us know in good time before we went on holiday, because if they had we might have been able to arrange for someone to have a set of keys for our house.

Instead we get back to find a letter and a “We called but you we’re’nt in” type postcard on the doormat and then find out that we no longer have a gas supply, because the stupid twats have cut the pipe off the wall in order to put a new plastic one, thing is they did’nt put a new plastic one there, they just put nothing there.

I did’nt ring National Grid on Saturday because I thought they would’nt be able to do anything till Monday, but after speaking to a friend who works for British Gas, was informed that there would be someone answering the phone over the weekend.

So the conversation on Sunday involved informing them we had no gas supply, could we have it reconnected please, they informed me they’d get right on it and low and behold within the hour someone turned up to reconnect us, however after surveying the site for about 15 minutes the guy who turned up informed me that they could’nt do anything because the people who had originally cut our pipe/supply off had back-filled in the hole and they had’nt the equipment to dig it back out . . .  cue me not being very happy and them promising that they would arrange to get the hole re-dug out first thing in the morning and arrange for someone to reconnect us in the afternoon, we just had to ensure that someone one at home from 2pm.

I explained that we both worked and that we could possibly be back at 3pm, they said yeah that would be fine.

Today at 5:30pm get a call at work from Mel letting me know that they’ve still not turned up, so i get on the phone to National Grid/British Gas to ask why and they said ” We’ve got it on our notes that there coming today, can we just check and ring you back”

20 mins later and i’ve left work and got home and still not had a call back, now if that’s not bad, wait till you hear the best bit . . .  you know how earlier I mentioned the bit about them saying “Oh we’ll get someone round first thing to re-dig the hole out” . .  well guess what I found when I got home, they’d not actually re-dug the hole out. . .  instead they’d concreted over it and tarmaced the rest.

Cue another call from me to National Grid asking them what the fuck was going on and when would I be getting my gas supply back, cue a few more minutes of them rereading my notes, me having to explain it all again and then them saying “Oh they’ll send someone round now to resolve it.

Ok I thought I’ll go walk the dog and wait for a call back . . .

Cue a pleasant walk with Blue and me calming down a bit thinking ” At last they’ve got the message and we can have heating back tonight”

Oh woe is me to actually think it was all over . .  got back from the dog walk to find 2 x National Grid guys looking a little bit perplexed and informing me that they were the guys who’d arranged on Sunday to come today and because the holes had been filled in and they did’nt have the drawings to show them if there might be other amenities beneath all that freshly laid concrete/tarmac they could’nt dig it up or in-fact reconnect us.

As you can guess I’m getting well annoyed with National Grid/British Gas by now and have spent another 15-20mins on the phone to them explaining the latest comedy of errors that they’ve performed . . . and again listened to their excuses/apologies and how they’ve now arranged for someone to be here tomorrow after 2pm, which now means one of us will again have to leave work early to be here so they can access our house . .

In the meantime we’ve got no hot water, no heating, no means by which to cook for the 3rd day in a row . .  so its either a microwave meal, a cold salad or a take away . .  either way National Grid owe me and I will be contacting them as soon as the works finally completed requesting, nay demanding payment for the inconvenience they’ve put me and Mel through . .

that British Gas are doing work on our road and needed access to the house while we were away to change our gas meter, so where now without gas until Monday/Tuesday, so gonna be a cold couple of days

Anyway heres some photos and videos from our hols

Heres the photos and link

Now here a few time lapse car journeys we did:

Little East Underdown Cottages to Lynmouth – Time-lapse Car

Lynmouth to Barnstaple – Time-lapse journey

Time-lapse car journey from Exmouth to the cottage we are staying at Little East

Cockington to Little East Underdown

Anyway hope you enjoy . .

After a six hour drive we’ve arrived at this years Autumn holiday destination, a lovely set of cottages at Little East Underdown in Devon.

The cottage were staying at is part of a barn conversion, it’s situated within Dartmoor National Park, so I’m expecting to at least get some good walking in at some point over the week.

First thing to be done when we arrived was to try out the amenities, which just happen to include a swimming pool & a sauna, it definitely helped relax me after the drive, think I’m going o be using those every morning while were here.

Not to sure were to go tomorrow yet, think we’ll check the net out and see if there’s any car boots on nearby, as for now I have a rather sad faced dog called Blue looking at me wondering when I’m going to take her for a walk.

Its that time of year again when the Fun Dog Show’s start and as usual we’ve been scouring the internet for any local show’s, we’ve found about 3 so far and the first one was held on Saturday just gone at Jackson’s Boat, a dog friendly pub beside the Mersey.

The event was held to raise money for the local RSPCA, so as well as it being a fun day out for me, Mel and Blue, it was also helping those animals less fortuanante.

The categories we decided to enter were :

Prettiest Bitch

Most Looks Like Owner

Best Treat Catcher

Now if Blue won any of these she was automatically entered through to the “Best in Show” categorie.

Out of the 3 we entered Blue into she came 1st in two of them, only losing out in the Prettiest Bitch catergorie, which came as a surprise as she normally wins that one, but must admit there was some stiff competion on the day.

Because of the 2 x 1st places she was then entered into the Best in Show, were sadly she did’nt win, but she came 2nd and was awarded the Reserve Best in Show rosette, so all it was a pretty good day, she got 3 more rosettes to add to her 20 odd now adorning the hallway mirror and over £400 was raised for the RSPCA.

The next 2 shows are this coming weekend, theres one on saturday at Longford Park Pageant and one on the Sunday at the Dane Road Animal Sanctuary, so if you’ve nothing to do on either day, feel free to come and cheer Blue on

Just sat waiting for Sean to arrive before heading to Designthefutures exhibition at No 8 Stevenson Square, the exhibition is work by Micah Purnell, covering work he’s done over the past 2-3years.

In the word of the Designthefutures.info website :

“Over 67,000 flyposters & flyers have been designed & distributed anonymously for the last 36 months in Manchester to offer a place of contemplation in a society dominated by advertising, redeeming advertising space for the sake of of art and thought.”

You may of seen any number of these flyers/posters around and about Manchester and not realised the significance of them, I know I have on occasion seen these posters and not given them a second glance, just presuming there another corporations attempt to sell me something or to buy into their dream, though upon closer inspection you find something totally different, a little message or image to brighten up that dull dreary Manchester day.

But enough for now, let me sit here and enjoy my freshly pulled pint of Hoegarden while I await Sean’s arrival and then onto the exhibition where I’ll hopefully learn more about Micah and his thinking behind his 3 year battle to brighten the streets and make people think.