Friday saw Jack coming down First Class as usual with me meeting him at Stratford and then heading to Surrey Quays for dinner at Frankie & Benny’s before heading over to watch Prometheus in 3D – neither great nor disappointing – before heading back to the apartment for a late night.
Mid-morning and we headed off to Surrey Docks Farm for their fabulous Farmhouse Breakfasts and then off to Oxford Street to go suit shopping for Jack. He wasn’t taken with the more expensive suits even on offer at Lewin or Tyrwhitt and Ted Baker, so we settled on the suit he’d seen at Top Man as well as a new pair of shoes. Then back home for Papa John’s pizzas and Euro 2012 on the telly.
This morning, we got up late and then headed off to Liverpool Street for Jack to head back up to Norwich whilst I went off to Spitalfields to buy some Doc Martens for the USA trip.
Now enjoying the television and catching up as always.
When we actually came to use it properly, it started but within a few seconds stopped and all the lights flashed. Nothing in the manual helped and it was the same whether we were using the sensor drying programmes or timed drying. So we rang the 24 hour service number which is only working from 9 to 5…
Eventually we spoke to them today: apparently when it’s cold, the sensor gets too cold and refuses to allow the dryer to run. It’s a known fault. And the remedy?
“Try using the dryer when it’s warmer.”
Like? When it’s not winter or when we’d be pegging things out on the line? Ah…
“And best of all, iTunes gift cards are convenient and fast. You can buy them online or in hundreds of stores nationwide, email them, print them out or gift select items directly to someone special.”
Well you can … if you have iTunes installed on the machine you are at when you want to make a purchase.
I decided that buying an iTunes gift card might be an option for my niece and when I received an e-mail from Apple advertising them, I clicked on the link.
The landing page, however, looks for iTunes on the machine and if you don’t have it installed – as is the case on my work laptop – then that’s it. No purchase is possible.
As I have now moved out of the house into the London flat, I have had to move my main PC and other storage down here. Working off the laptop on the small, round dining table doesn’t really make sense, and there’s no room for a PC and two monitors on the dining table anyway.
So I decided I needed a desk.
Now given the general theme of the decor at the flat, a cheapo plywood flat-pack desk or computer table from Argos wouldn’t look right so I ventured over to John Lewis at Bluewater a couple of Saturdays ago to see what they had. As expected, the desks on offer were good quality, if a little expensive and this desk seemed to fit the bill (albeit a large bill at £195!):
John Lewis Sammy Desk
They checked and said there were none in stock, but they would have one for me to collect on Tuesday (too far out to deliver, apparently). “Never mind,” I thought, “I will be passing on Wednesday, so I can collect it then”. And so it transpired: I arrived around 5.00pm and was told it was in, either at the Customer Collection Point or possibly at the Service Centre. After waiting 45 minutes, I was told they couldn’t find it so they would have to order another one in and could I collect it on Friday? No! I kicked up a fuss about having to come all the way out and back yet again, so the young assistant said he/they would deliver it to me on Friday evening at around 6.00pm.
I left the office early and was at the flat by around 5.30pm. Being really hungry, I rang them to get an up to date ETA to see if I had time to cook and eat tea first. I did: the chap I’d dealt with was off sick and hadn’t put anything like that on the system and no, they couldn’t deliver it as no-one who was insured to do so was there. I went berserk!
So we agreed that I would travel back to Bluewater (out of London on a Friday evening…), collect the desk myself and bring it back, but that they’d refund me half the price – £96 as it transpired – so that’s what I did. The helpful assistant brought the two boxes out to my car and I loaded them in – one flat and one long and thin, which I assumed must be some sort of support rails…
Back at the flat, I unpacked the large, flat box and put the frame together (complete with one knackered bolt thread…) before lifting it into place. Now all I needed was the glass … er … what glass? Yes, despite being boxed up with my name on both, box 1 of 2 was in fact half of a hat and coat stand from the same range and not the glass top and shelves for the desk!
So Saturday morning found me back on the phone to John Lewis at Bluewater. No, I couldn’t come and collect the shelves as I was in Norfolk and yes, they really would have to come and deliver them on Monday evening.
Which they did yesterday. And it is a nice desk. I’ll have to sort out a photo.
Now all I need to do is get the PC to talk to the laptop over the wireless network as it seems not to be able to do so (wired to wireless and without the router I was using back in Norfolk).
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