View From The Window

 The Legendary Map Fortune has taken some severe hits this week, I have been informed that £1,800 has been stolen from the account by hackers in bundles of £600 a time, I am at my wits end, I don't know where to turn. No, wait, just the usual criminal masterminds with the funny accent hoping to find someone daft enough to believe them, not today Raj. Raj's telecoms department was also busy and threatened that if I did not act immediately they would have to cut off my broadband, although I had turned to jelly I found enough backbone to tell Raj's mate to go ahead and cut me off, guess what, I'm still here. I was discussing this disgusting behaviour with one of my few customers yesterday and I have just served an old gentleman this morning who did fall for Raj or Malik's dishonesty and he has had his bank accounts emptied, he seems to think things will be fine after talking to his bank but I am not so sure as he is sending letters out, today your savings can disappear in nanoseconds, but I do hope he gets his money back.

And while on the subject of Banks, back in 2005 the Government lied, yes lied to people, pensioners in particular that they would always be able to get their pensions/benefits at a local Post Office, how did that promise turn out, well I have now got about half a dozen people on the government card account which is closing in 2021. Access your bank at the PO says the government, well that is fine but Barclays has now decided that I can continue to do their work for them, deposits and balances but I cannot from 2020 give their money out, no I don't get it either. There must be some penny pinching idea behind it and it will only be a matter of time before our other 'people come first' banks follow on.

I had a problem with NowTV the other night and after putting up with it and promising to do something I eventually did, but wait, you cannot simply phone them up, nor can you email. So out came the iPad, I hit the support site, it asked me to ask the 'community' or look at the FAQ, if I still had a problem I could hit the chat button to 'speak' to an operator. I didn't have the patience nor twelve hours to spare so I hit the chat button......... ask the community or look at the FAQ. After going around in circles and four Paracetamol's I gave up. The problem kind of resolved itself but when I have finished watching the series I am enjoying at the moment I will stop my Direct Debit and wait for them to contact me.

My sons and I usually have an annual night out and this year we are going to Glasgow, Graham will be going to see Celtic on the Sunday so Stewart and I will turn up for the Saturday night, perhaps my brother and a couple of others will turn up, who knows. I saw a price for a hotel at £79, so phoned them up, imagine my surprise when I found myself talking to a woman in Manila with no hint of a Glaswegian accent. Not only that the price jumped to £140 with taxes etc., what taxes, Filipino taxes perhaps. It took me another 45 minutes to track down a phone number to talk directly to Wullie in Glasgow and I got it for £95, a kind of result.

I am not going to go into the mess with Extinction Rebellion only to say that if you glue yourself to a train or airplane having your wits about you then said train or airplane should take off and hell mend you.

The Met called in reinforcements but probably none were forthcoming from Thames Valley Police as they had to hunt down the dangerous gang who were involved in putting stickers around Oxford saying that a woman is an adult female and that women do not have a penis. The chief officer involved (a woman natch) was concerned about the possible diabolical message behind these stickers not that they were in fact, eh fact. They may also not have had recruits from Cheshire Police as they were making a video marking International Pronouns Day, crimes involving the misuse of he/she/they/ze et al. which are perhaps overtaking knife crime, oh and the Deputy Chief Constable is another woman, no surprise there then.

Lastly I leave you with this bonzer from a few months ago which I have been saving up, Gwent peelers got upset because people made fun of their mugshot, why should Britain tremble.

Oh, I almost forgot, now we are even afraid to go shopping.