What I did for the holidays 2008

I made it to the States for Christmas and New Year's and was able to enjoy some time to rest and enjoy family and friends. I made it back to the US on the 21st. I went to Indy first to spend some time with my friend, Laura, and shop! It's a lot easier to pack stuff across the Mid-West than it is the Atlantic Ocean. We went to see the movie, "Tale Despereaux" with her kids.

The picture on the right is my niece, Katie.

I had an interesting drive back across the mid-West with some freezing rain and generally gross weather. It was cold in the US when I arrived. ! When I left London, it was 60 degrees. When I landed in Cincy, it was just 12 degrees. It was a shock to my system! I'm not used to the cold.

The picture on the left is my nephew, Sean. All of the Dan clan Looney's and I met at Dave & Buster's one afternoon for some games and fun. The last game I played was a side-by-side video shooting game with Sean. We were in a Jeep running away from giant tarantulas, evil dragon flies, and some kind of leech that jumps after you. Nightmares.

It's amazing how much my nieces and nephews have grown since I was last here in September.

I spent four nights at my brother Mike's house. After a few days surrounded by all of the women in his life, he was desperate for some football [none was on TV] or some testosterone!

I was just excited to have access to broadband, get some serious sleep, and spend some time with Erin and Emily! Christmas morning was fun. The girls were wound up and lovin' life!

This is my movie-star niece, Emily. She looks quite the Hollywood role with her sun glasses and new cell phone.

After easing into the day, the rest of the Looney clan comes to Mike's for Christmas dinner. Not sure how he did it, but Mike's girlfriend Lynn made the meal, and it was awesome.

Erin is the oldest of the little Looney's. She's 13 and always busy.

Right before the New Year, my brother, Dan and his wife, Diana, signed on a house that they built. Diana and the kids to me to the house for a walk through. The kids were out of their heads with excitement and each showed me their new rooms. After months in an apartment, it was getting a littel crowded.

Congratulations Dan & Diana. On the left is my nephew, Brian, with his cool European hair style.

After Christmas, I made my way to Louisville. Just some quick highlights:

• dinner party with the girls at Traci's house [where I am dancing like Traci ... pull the rope ... pull the rope]
• bonfire and smores in the outside fireplace at Carleen and Bud's
• stop by my house to repair a gate [yes, I have a property manager]
• dinner with Jyl
• lunch with Janice
• saw a movie ["The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"]
• dinner with Nick
• New Year's Eve at my friend Sarah's
• New Year's Day at the Gables's
• introduction to the Wii with the Dinga's [my Wii Fit age is 37!]
• and Fat Jimmy's pizza and a movie ["Bedtime Stories"] with Rhonda & Cassidy

I think it's safe to say that I miss a few things while living in the UK [Walgreen's and Target stores]. I definitely miss people [my friends and family that know me]. I miss pizza. I miss having a social life, really. Must work on that. Guess we can call that my New Year's resolution!

Happy New Year, all!

Can't Make This Up Continues ... Sky Broadband

Okay seriously. I know those of you whom would normally connect with me on-line or I might call you [from Skype] think that I am making my inability to be re-connected to the modern world. Thought I would share my weekend with you.


As you may recall from my Sounds of Silence post on 30 November, I have been expecting my phone line to be activated on 12 Dec. This is a line-rental only agreement. I have my [satellite] television, phone, and broadband from Sky. Now I can't get my account transferred from my address in Bristol to London until I have my new telephone number. When I last called BT, they gave me my new phone number. What I should have done was called Sky on the same day, but I knew it wouldn't be easy, so I decided to wait.

Before I continue, there would be no point in me embellishing. Seriously. It would take too much effort.

Okay, I call Sky and connect to the moving house team. Yep, I've already moved and I have a phone number [this is call #1]. Okay, let's change your address. Done. Great. Let's change you phone number. Okay, it's [I'm omitting numbers since I'm on the World Wide Web] 0*00** 46 54 27.
I'm sorry. Could you repeat that?
Sure. 0*00** 46 54 27.
That's one too many numbers.
Oh. Maybe I have too many zeroes. Try this: 0*0** 46 54 27
Yes, that's fine.
Fine, what about my Broadband. Oh, well, we'll have to transfer you to Broadband technical team 'cause they have to do something to transfer this. I am transferred to the tech team ... and promptly disconnected.

Call #2: I call and connect to the Broadband technical team. At the beginning of the call, I plug in all of my personal information, account #, address, secret word, and so on. The techy got on and asked, have you changed your home number.
Yes, it's 0*0** 46 54 27.
Are you calling from that number now.
Yes.
That number is *****44 55 19.
I'm sorry? Can you repeat that?
Yes, the number you are calling from is ***** 44 55 19.
My home number? Can you see it?
Yes. Okay, well then we'll need to change that on my account, but that's not the number BT gave me.
Fine. I'll have to transfer you to the moving house team.
Great. I get transferred and I stay on the phone for 20 more minutes waiting, but there is not music, so I decide I have been lost in the system and I hang up.

Call #3: I decide to call from my home number to my work mobile so that I can verify the number. It rings. I hang up. I go upstairs to look at my caller ID on the phone.
***** 44 77 19
I call it again.
***** 44 77 19.
Rats!

Call #4: I call the moving house team because they clearly have the wrong phone number for the house which means NOTHING will work, cable, phone and broadband. I tell them that I've moved house and that I gave the wrong number and need to change it.
No problem. **** 44 77 19. Got it.
Now, can you connect me to whomever needs to transfer my Broadband.
Sure. I'll put you in the Que. They have to do something and then you'll be set up.
Fine......................................................... I hung up when my phone said I had been waiting 40 minutes.

At this point, I had a movie in the DVD player. I had a lot of time to kill. Needed something else to do.

Call #5: I call the Broadband technical team. They can't help me. My broadband account is still attached to my home number in Bristol. Did I call to cancel it?
I thought that's what I was trying to do.
We'll have to transfer you to the sales team so that you can cancel your account.
Fine.
The sales person confirms my address, my account number, and my password. Right. We'll just transfer your account to your new phone number. Hold please.
I turned the movie back on.
After 20 minutes, they came back and said that they had transferred the phone number, so now they are going to transfer me to the technical team to move my broadband.
After waiting in the cue for 1 hour, I hung up.

Call #6: I call the Broadband technical team. I was place in a cue. After 35 minutes, the message was cutting out ["thank you for calling Sky. We'll be with you shortly." Every 20 seconds]. I decided that I was not in the Que. The movie was over. I went to bed.

SUNDAY
Call #7: I call the moving house team, and I tell the [Scottish] guy that I made six calls the day before and was in two different cues for hours and I now have two problems:
1 - I changed my account details and now my satellite doesn't work; and
2 - I need to transfer my broadband.
Your TV doesn't work?
No. It worked before I called you yesterday to update my account.
Okay, hold on....and then I walked through a series of steps with him before he transferred me to someone to help me with my broadband.
The very nice Scottish man said he would wait with me in the cues to get my account changed. It now becomes clear to my WHY the cues are so long. The service team are in the cues with you AND they're not advanced to the front of the cue. They have to take their place in line like the rest of us!!!!! After 45 minutes, my broadband account in Bristol was successfully cancelled. I need to give a "quick call back in 10 days to have my new account activated".
I said, I've been on line for 45 minutes already trying to get to you. There is no such thing as a quick call.
Right. Is there anything else?
Yes, I have to call back in 10 days to transfer my broadband account [24 Dec].
Yes.
Why?
Well, that's how long it takes.
So, I've made seven phone calls and been on this one for nearly an hour and I have to call again?
Right. We need to transfer you now to the Sky Talk team [this is my phone line].
She does, and she stays on the line with me. Puts me on hold .... and then comes back. I need to call back in three days to complete the Sky Talk transfer.
Is that three days from when my new line started [15 Dec] or three days from this call [17 Dec].
Three days from this call.
Why?
Why what?
Why will it take three days?
It just does.

Lesson: two days. seven phone calls. three home phone numbers. four hours on the phone. I. MADE. NO. PROGRESS. Except that my satellite TV was interrupted and restarted! Argh!!!!

Christmas Village in Bath

When I came to the UK for the first time in 2001, I visited Bath for a week. Bath is only 40 miles from Bristol. I lived in Bristol for one year, and I managed to get to Bath one afternoon, late, in May when my folks were here. I really didn't do the city justice for their visit. Aside from the Georgian architecture, Roman history, and mineral springs ... it is an amazing city. Absolutely gorgeous. Busy. Easily reached from the likes of London-ers for a day, and thus it is frequently busy with one event or another. My neighbors in Bristol were always amazed that we didn't get the same tourist traffic in Bristol, only 13 minutes further up the train tracks. To me, it is easy. Bath wants visitors. Bristol wanted residents.


So there is a bit of a European tradition to visit Christmas villages whilst getting ready for Christmas. Their origin is Germany, but the villages are a part of getting ready for the holidays.


It's like going to a summer arts or crafts fair. The only difference being that the vendors are in small wooden chalets for their booths. It is interesting how this limits the number of potential customers a booth-minder can manage. If you intend to purchase something, you really need to be patient to catch the attention of the chalet-keeper.


Bath has their Christmas village surrounding the baths and the Cathedral. I think the village surrounding the cathedral is a normal thing. Makes sense that the church would have some role in sponsoring a Christmas sale / fund-raiser, I think.


The nice thing about Bath is that it has a "proper shopping district" in the centre of town. This was something that I really missed whilst I lived in Bristol. The high street finally opened a modern facility one month before I moved away. Anyway, it is possible that you could come down to the high street and achieve a major part of your Christmas shopping list.


It had the usual suspects. There were street entertainers looking for spare change for doing odd entertainment things ... like this guy who set up a tight [sort of] rope and balance on it whilst playing the fiddle. [I say "fiddle" because what he was playing would not be considered classical or violin-like.]


Of course, like any fair, there is food. I had a sausage [bratwurst] and a mulled wine [warm red wine with spices, such as allspice and cinnamon]. All very good. And I think you can tell that the weather cooperated. It is so much nicer this year.


2008 was an unprecedented year for rain in the UK. Something like once in a 100 years! I can take the cold and the wind, as long as there is a break from the rain. I realise that I experience the weather here like Seattle, but last year ... Wow! My toes have webs between them! It really was a nice day.

Ugly Car is Expensive!

Okay, so there is this thing called the MOT. It's an acronym for Ministry of Transportation. The Ministry no longer exists, but there is a painful [and expensive] process that your car must go through every year once a vehicle is three years old.

Coincidentally, my car was also due for it's 18,000 mile service. All of this, of course, fell about the same time that I was moving to London. I decided that before I moved, I should take my [very] ugly car to the dealership that I bought it at in Portishead. I dropped the car off at the dealership on 7 Nov when I left for my weekend in Paris.

Two days before I dropped it off, a light on the dash came on that said "service". There is also a countdown on the dash that tells me how many miles left before the car requires service.

So I drop the car off and tell them it needs service and the MOT and that I'll pick it up on Monday. Before I actually left for Paris, the dealership called me three times.

Call #1: in addition to what has been agreed, rear brakes and pads need replacing, plus two new rear tires, oil change & filter.

Fine.

Call #2: they let the engine cool and started it cold and there is a service light on the dash. Did I know that.

Yes...thought it was because service was due.

No...it's a bigger problem.

Call #3: both the driver side and rear window screen arms need replacement. Replacing the blades will only help the car pass the MOT, but doesn't fix the problem. They can order it, but it will be Tuesday when the part arrives. [I return from Paris on Monday and have to be in London on Tuesday for a meeting, but I will be back in Bristol on Wednesday for a meeting and can pick up the car then. I'll need a loaner. More on that in a minute.]

After this, I got on the plane and went to Paris. I had two more calls and subsequent voicemails.

Call #4: service light on the dash. Turns out, fault-to-glow- plug is faulty and needs replacement.
What the heck is that? And on the receipt, it's in French, so I really have no idea what it is, still.

Call #5: brake light is out. They've replaced it.

So on Monday, I arrive back in Bristol / Portishead and head to the dealership to pick up my loaner car. They gave me a 2008 Renault Twingo. Orange.

Oh. My. God. Are you kidding me? I had no idea that there was a car uglier than the one that I owned, and yet, I was proven wrong. Feisty. Practical. Connected. My colleagues seem to believe that this car described me. I plead to have my mustard yellow car returned to me and I'll bring it back on Wednesday. Nope. The wiper arms have to be replaced and the car can't pass the MOT without them and they can't release the car without it passing the MOT. Sigh.

I drive the ugly-er orange car to London on Monday. I drive the orange car back to Portishead and rescue my car for MOT jail for the bargain price of £911.26. Sigh.

Sadly, I am not finished.

And so, I've moved and I'm settling into my new place. And because it's been a year, I have received a notice from the Post Office that my auto insurance is going to automatically renew at the end of November. Great! One less thing I have to do for the ugly car.

And then I receive a notice that the tax disc [which I cannot pronounce] is going to expire on 30 November. Okay, that I can renew on-line. No big deal. Right. You may remember that I don't have a phone / broadband right now, which means my access to managing my life if fairly limited. By the time I am able I try to renew my tax disc on-line, it tells me that I can't because the my insurance hasn't renewed. Good news! I have my insurance through the Post Office. Wait...it will auto-renew on 3 Dec. The disc expires 30 Nov. This means that unless I can get to a Post Office that distributes tax discs, my car is parked...off road. If it's parked on the street, it can be toed and CRUSHED. Argh!