Light

I'm glad I spotted the sunlight coming in through our front room windows this morning and hitting those boxes here.  For once, I was glad that they were here.  See my PS.  

The rest of day was a frustrating one with lots of things that didn't work, which took up far too much time and tested my patience: 

Chasing up Carrefour supermarket to find out why they charged us for delivery when it was meant to be free - unsuccessful.  The reason we shopped online was to take advantage of a 20 euros voucher off the first online shop - we prefer going to the supermarket!!   When the 20 euros voucher was deducted that took us down to 115 euros and you needed 120 to get free delivery!  Never again.  Ah, it was only a one-time offer anyway.  Bb will be pleased as he didn't want to do it anyway.

Emailing back and forward to the book shop in Bath where Bb bought me a subscription to a book a month for a year for my birthday.  I was just about to set it all up when I thought about Brexit and customs.  Sure enough, when I checked with them they said we'd have to pay customs for every book delivered.  They're trying to work something out, but it will take a few months and a successful outcome isn't guaranteed.  My pressie is now on hold :-(

The worst was chasing up a surprise 'gentle reminder' letter for an unpaid utility bill that the company sent to the letting agency in Edinburgh.  We had just worked out recently how to pay what we thought was the outstanding balance and got a friend in the UK to pay it for us using Paypoint and we sent her a bank transfer.  The company's website is super user-UNfriendly, doesn't give a UK 'normal' number, nor an email address and the online 'chat' is with a robot.  I couldn't access our account online as we had never registered with this supplier, only inherited them. I tried to open an account using the reference number on the letter - not recognised, not this number nor the one on the bills paid recently.   GGGrrrrrr!!  I couldn't call the 0333 number from outside the UK.  I eventually tried calling the 0333 (?) number on Skype and it worked!  I only had to wait for 27 mins for the call to be answered!  They found our details and apparently that letter should never have been sent. In fact, we're DUE a refund of £30 and so a cheque is in the post to the agency for us.  You couldn't make it up. 

Last but not least was trying to work out a bonus scheme I recently signed up for, which is to encourage citizens to shop local - something I'm all for.  I could only see the rough location of shops in the scheme on the map after I'd downloaded my first voucher, not the name or exact address.  At least this one had a successful outcome as they responded to a WhatsApp message and gave instructions.  The scheme is such that every citizen can download 3 vouchers for €10 euros each and when you spend €20 in one of the shops in the scheme, you pay 10 and the local council pay 10. 

Actually there's another thing, still unresolved, was trying to figure out a way to get some things back from Cairo to Barcelona.  One company quoted 1,500 euros hahaha!  DHL pushed me back and forward from country to country.  Two other companies have been emailed, but I have no hope this is going to happen.  I'm reaching the point of just gifting the two bigger items (brand new chairs - blipped, but now I can't find them -
https://www.blipfoto.com/entry/2505470097150181494  similar to this one here, same shop:  and keeping the rest there in a friend's flat, which he's fine about, and perhaps wrapping them up ourselves and paying for overweight flight luggage the next time we're back .   One will have to marked fragile!  

All of these things made the assessor's meeting this morning a dawdle.  Happy trainees and good feedback on the course.  It finishes on Thursday.  

PS The boxes in my blip are amongst the things that were moved into the hall from the front room when we finally got that into action again after a year, having moved everything out of the attic.  We have to walk sideways in and out of the hall these days - well, not quite - but it looks like a left luggage room!