ALL MIXED UP

-Just what we wanted

It was with interest that I read my good friend Jill Taylor's blog today. She had been waiting for a few days on the delivery of a new sewing machine. It came later than she was promised but when it arrived she was so pleased with it and sparked it into use straight away. Similarly I was waiting too, for a new mixer for The Cheats to replace the old one which sounds as if it is on it's last legs. We ordered it last Thursday and a Friday delivery was promised. So it was with relief that I opened the door to my neighbour Gary who announced he had taken in a delivery for me.
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As soon as I saw Gary coming towards me with a parcel the size of a DVD player I knew something was wrong and all my carefully laid plans to have it delivered on a day when I don't work were as nothing. I should have known better. Now the correct mixer is the size of a small suitcase and I knew what I had ordered was right so what was this? I freed it from it's bubble wrap. The box it was in turned out to be twice the size of this mixer. Here...take a look at it resting on my coservatory sofa.

-A phone call to the suppliers gear4music (be warned) followed. Of course their Customer Service department was 5p a minute but they rekoned without one of my favourite websites http://www.saynoto0870.com/ and I was soon being told that 'the picker does not know much about mixers'. I resisited the temptation to suggest maybe the 'picker' to stick to removing the contents of his nose. Anyway, they collected the rogue item and assured me the new one would be delivered on Monday, a day when I would not be there. Now that's another problem then.

SATNAV SENSATIONS

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Britannia Stadium

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I have spent this weeked taking part in one of my least favourite activities and that is driving or being driven. How I hate it. I especially hate city driving followed closely by motorway driving. So a Saturday spent motoring to Stoke and back and then to Charlton in south London on Sunday was beyond the pale. However, there was at least a plus side to both trips,....... eventually.....We got home safely!
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The trip to Stoke was of course to see the Premier League game between them and Super Spurs. I went with some trepidation as to go all the way up there and return empty handed was too terrible to contemplate. Nick did the driving thankfully, which eased the torment somewhat. The rain was persisting most of the way there and we were pretty much dependant on SAT NAV to get us past the inevitable delays on the journey. What a great invention that is too. At least you can't really get lost with one of those, which for me was one of the absolute worst things about driving to another place. -

Nico's SATNAV working fine!

In London today I realised that they are not infallable when after emerging from the Blackwall tunnel we lost the signal for an instant were without guidance and took a wrong lane. The software then recalulated the trip using the next 'convenient' route. We ended up in gridlock mayhem on the North Circular. Not the best way to spend a Sunday.
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Stoke were well beaten by Spurs in an exciting game thanks largely to Stoke striker who looked as if his own personal SATNAV had malfunctioned as he fired over from close range with the goal at his mercy. But moment of the day was to come at the Harlington Performs quiz, which we really had to fly down the motorway to get back for. In our team was The Iddon Family. Nick, our driver, Jane, Nick's wife and son Tom and his wife Amy.
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Over the evening Iddon senior consumed a fair amount of beer and was beginning to look the worst for wear. He also began to speak louder, either in answering questions or taking the rise out of his son. It was during one of these interludes when Jane's personal SATNAV went AWOL as well. As she was admonishing Nick for speaking too loudly, fooling about and 'drawing attention to himself as usual', she reached forward across the table and in one deft yet fantastically snychronised moment, tipped the entire contents of her wine glass over the table and more importantly, him too. It made a hell of a noise as well Priceless! You had to be there.