Flossie arrives

Following the loss of Poppy a month ago, we felt that he time was right to get another companion for Oscar (and for us!) as he was clearly missing her.

After searching without success for a rescue dog, we decided that we would take the plunge and get ourselves a puppy.

Hence the arrival this morning of Flossie.

We fetched her from Stanwick near Rushden, she is the result of a scruffy coated Jack Russell dog, and a smooth haired Fox Terrier bitch. The bitches father was a 4 times Cruft's winner so we were told!

We got home with her without incident at around 11.30 this morning, and before midday she had fallen into the pond, and had stuck her head into Oscar's bowl whilst he was eating and got snapped at for her trouble, so an exciting morning for an 8 week old Puppy!

She is due at the Vet on Monday for her jabs, we will see how long it takes for her to settle in, she is already showing s distinct interest in tennis balls (who does that remind you of?

April 2010

Broadband woes

On Tuesday the 2nd of March, my ISP, Direct Save Telecom decided to switch off my broadband for no good reason. They did not bother to tell me they had done this, so when the red light appeared on my router, I assumed the router had packed up, and promptly bought a new one from Amazon which arrived on Thursday 4th March. (superb service as ever)

Thursday evening saw the installation of the new router to cure the problem and lo and behold, the red light was still there!

At that point I rang DST who after running through the normal checklist (is it turned on etc) announced the reason I could not connect to the internet was because I did not have, and never had, broadband on my line.

As you can imagine, I was somewhat perplexed at this announcement, I think I would have noticed if I had been without broadband for 18 months, not having it for 18 hours was like having your arm cut off, so I discounted that statement. They had been charging me for it as well, so I am pretty sure it had been working!

When I then asked what they were going to do about it, they said I would have to apply as a new customer which would take up to 14 days. What choice did I have? None, so reluctantly accepted my fate and on Sunday the 14th March the little red light suddenly turned green. No warning, no apology, and no response to my 2 emails asking for some kind of compensation for time without BB, the purchase of a new router, and the cost of mobile broadband in the interim period.

So, if you ever consider moving to Direct Save Telecom, think twice. Yes they are very competitively priced, and to be fair, before this happened, the BB link had never gone down, but what a fiasco!

Winter arrives

Winter arrived today, causing the usual chaos. On my journey into work this morning I saw three cars in trouble before I reached the main road.

I took this picture from the back door at around 7 this evening, not bad if I say so myself!!

Pampered Pet!!

Here are a couple of pictures of Oscar in his usual laid back pose, pampered, moir?

All go

Last night I visited Sherwood Lodge in Nottingham as the guest of David Smith who I met through my late friend Geoff Parker. Sherwood is a very friendly Lodge, and I am hoping that three or four of their members will come and visit us in March.

Three Masonic functions this week, including a visit to Spilsby, December is going to be a very busy month!

Wednesday last saw my second evening in the chair as WM, 83 people in attendance, a superb evening enjoyed by all. It has taken 10 years to get to this position, and all the way along, people have told me how much I will enjoy it, and how quickly the time will go, they are right on both counts. We have a busy December with various Masonic social events etc, so am looking forward to a few days off over Christmas to recuperate!