Tag Archives: crewe bus station

Friday 13th May 2011 – It’s been a long time …

breaking dawn sunrise les guis virlet puy de dome france.. since I’ve had one of these. It was one of those rare nights that they call a nuit blanche around here where I didn’t go to sleep at all. And I’m not quite sure why either, because I had a busy day yesterday too.

And so I sat in the window, reading a book to pass the time and at approximately 04:45 the sun started to come up, so I took a photo of the breaking dawn. I then went back to reading until breakfast time.

It’s been absolutely years since I’ve had one of those.

Today I’ve spent most of the afternoon on the phone. Katherine has sent a parcel back from Canada and it’s gone missing. The Canadian Postal Service’s website is useless and the telephone system is one of those digitalised ones where it is not possible to speak to a human, and it tells you nothing that the website doesn’t tell you.

Of course, I’m not one to take that kind of thing lying down and after many struggles I ended up speaking to the Personal Assistant of Rob Merrifield, who is the Canadian Government Minister for Posts and Telecommunications. We had a lengthy chat and this evening I’ve received a mail from her to say that someone from the Canadian Postal Service will be in touch with me.

We shall see, of course, because I have heard all of this before, but the only way to deal with incompetence and obfuscation is to go to the top. Once a few Government ministers have had their ears bent by a few dissatisfied customers, things might change.

Mind you, I’m not holding my breath. It’s not like the time that the lavatory attendants closed the public conveniences on Crewe Bus Station, to the inconvenience of everyone. But I didn’t take it lying down – I stood up and went over their heads.

home made balloon frame greenhouse les guis virlet puy de dome franceNow that I’ve been to the sawmill at St Gervais d’Auvergne I can crack on with the balloon frame greenhouse and I spent the rest of the day cutting the wood ready for assembling the framework.

It’s coming on quite nicely now, and the net job will be to give it a couple of coats of the LIDL wood treatment, but that’s not for today.

So after finishing off the framework for the greenhouse I came in and started tidying up. I have a caller tomorrow – someone who wants to sell me some solar panels so that I can sell electricity to the EDF. I hate these canvassers.

Friday 25th December 2009 – And a Merry Christmas to all my readers.

That was what used to be written on the banner of the kids’ comics such as the Beano and the Dandy back when I was a kid. But I remember it more being scrawled upon the wall of the public lavatories at Crewe Bus Station back in the 1960s. Yes, I have fond memories of the toilets at Crewe Bus Station – it’s where I learnt a good deal of anatomy simply by reading the notices and looking at the pictures drawn on the walls.

There was a good deal of good poetry too – forget your Stephen Spenders and Louis MacNeices – what gem have they ever written that could possibly compare with the lyrical rhapsody of

It’s no good standing on the seat
The crabs in here can jump six feet
And if you think that that is high
Go next door! The b@$t@rd$ fly!

It knocks Wordsworth’s flaming daffodils into a cocked hat, I can tell you.

So much to my surprise I was up and about by 09:40 this morning. Even more surprising because I didn’t go to bed until gone 04:00. And today, I have dome exactly zilch. I’ve not even made lunch and dinner – just sitting here nibbling on bits and pieces.

liz messenger vegan christmas cake sauret besserve puy de dome franceThe most strenuous thing that I did was to wander over to Caliburn and rescue the cake that Liz made for me. And isn’t it magnificent? It’s almost too good to cut, isn’t it? Nevertheless, half of it is now in a Tesco storage container downstairs in the verandah and the other half is up here in a Tesco storage container.

And it’s delicious too! It’s far too nice to eat. It was really thoughtful of Liz to make it for me.

I’ve also unpacked the weather centre that I bought. That will have to wait for a few days to be installed as it’s quite an operation. It also requires, would you believe, 10xAA batteries to work it altogether. I need to go and have a hunt around to see what I have.

And that was that! And I don’t care either.

And once again, Season’s greetings to all of you. Thank you for your support.