Isolated Blurt Thread Again

My aerial mechanic (when he's not being a fireman) does that BUT our major problem has been lightning strikes.

Do you have a respectable EARTH spike to hand ?
B&Q has them; about 4 ft long, steel covered in copper. When you've got that in place (somewhere that does not dry out too much), bang it into the ground an connect a beefy earth cable to it. Then connect the other end to the mounting pole for the aerial.

Simples. . . .


PS. 4% of UK people do not have a mobile. I think may of them might be like me - unable to use one. But many more live in places without a reliable signal.
My seaside house is one. You can get a weak signal on some mobile networks but nothing at all on others.
PS. It is amusing to watch some youngsters staring at their mobiles in disbelief.
4G? No. 3G? No. 2G? Maybe. 1G? Possibly.


I get a good signal, but I do not understand these iPhone things (Waawa, WhoRwe, Galaxie, etc.). I just want to be able to ring somebody up in an emergency, not mess about.

I also get the "give us your mobile number" and similar pleas; some folk do not understand that I do not have the type of phone they think is vital to life. I had one young twerp try to tell me that if I put his postal code into my phone, I would get instructions as to how to get there for my appointment. He did not know how to post them.
They are techie idiots. . . .
 
F*****g PayPal continued.

I am now on the fifth customer adviser to send me messages that I can't read until I copy and paste them into Word and enlarge type to 14 or 16 point. When I type a reply to them in the small box I have to use a magnifying glass to check what I have written and any more than 50 characters dissappears out of the box.

The latest one said - download an app to my mobile! - Again! I had to say - again - I don't have and can't use a mobile.

OK. We'll send you an automated SMS message to your landline.

I had to say - Again! That I can't hear an automated message and even if I could hear it my ability to accurately enter a ten digit code is unlikely.

All this is to comply with EU regulations that will be irrelevant on December 31st. At this rate I will still be arguing with PayPal into 2021.
 
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I've had a similar problem wit Pp in trying to put up a new card number.
There seems no method of telling them I don't use a cell-phone. . . .


Good Luck, Ogg
 
I downloaded their two-stage identification program but it generates two codes that are only valid for 15 seconds.

Even copy and pasting between two screens I can't move that fast, because one screen is overwritten by the other. By the time I have closed the first screen, moved to the code screen, copied the first number, and back to the code screen more than 15 seconds have passed and the first code is no longer valid.

They have no idea about how to help disabled customers.
 
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PayPal customer advisers can't read. They keep pasting the standard response which I have repeatedly said I can't follow. Now they are suggesting I get someone else to do it for me.

That is insulting and demeaning to a disabled user, and I've asked my wife - the only other person available because of Covid. She can't complete the required actions in 15 seconds either!

I have given them an ultimatum. Unless they find a solution that a disabled person can use by the end of Thursday I will write to a whole range of organisations including Ministers and the Governor of the Bank of England for failing to make their services disabled compliant. I will ask for their licence to trade in the UK to be suspended, and because they say this change is to meet EU requrements, I will write to the EU as well asking for PayPal to be banned throughout Europe.

That is unlikely to work but I will raise a large stink that could affect their share price.

Do they care? Apparently not.
 
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PayPal customer advisers can't read.

That is unlikely to work but I will raise a large stink that could affect their share price.
Do they care? Apparently not.

And they only deal with questions they've organised. If, like me, you have a question which is not in their list- ~Tough !
Good Luck, Ogg.
 
And they only deal with questions they've organised. If, like me, you have a question which is not in their list- ~Tough !
Good Luck, Ogg.

Like my experience with replacing my Sky box. Use the website they said.

But my box was so old it wasn't on the website. It was obsolete twenty years ago. Even when I spoke to a real person they couldn't remember any customer who had one. They had to consult a supervisor who vaguely remembered it.
 
Him: They now make Cheetos popcorn.

Me: Is that popcorn that tastes like Cheetos or Cheetos that taste like popcorn?

Him: Why would anyone want Cheetos that taste like popcorn?

Me: Why would anyone want popcorn that tastes like Cheetos?
 
Him: They now make Cheetos popcorn.

Me: Is that popcorn that tastes like Cheetos or Cheetos that taste like popcorn?

Him: Why would anyone want Cheetos that taste like popcorn?

Me: Why would anyone want popcorn that tastes like Cheetos?

I have to side with him on this one. Cheetos flavored popcorn is barely half a step away from cheese popcorn, which has been around for years, is sold by many companies, and seems pretty popular. It's not my personal favorite, but every so often, I choose cheese popcorn over other popcorns when I have an abundance of snack choices.

Popcorn flavored Cheetos would just be Cheetos with all the orange stuff licked off. I don't see the appeal
 
The UK banned Cheetos? :eek: One of the few snacks I won't let go of.
 
Freegle/Freecycle

I have been reducing my collections of items I might use sometime.

I had six old mantel clock cases with non-working clocks. I had bought them at our local auction intending them for a lecturer at a local college that I had given some to before - but he had retired before I got in touch with them.

I put them on Freegle and someone wanted them within twenty minutes.

A local young lady is studying A level photography. She put a wanted item on a month ago - old cameras. It was repeated because no one had responded. I had some in my garage so I wrote to her asking what she meant. She replied that she wanted old cameras for display and old film SLRs for use on her course. I sorted them out in my garage and ended up with seven large under bed storage boxes full - four of older cameras such as Kodak Brownies and folding cameras and three of Zenith SLRs with dozens of M42 lenses from 200mm to 28mmm, together with extension tubes and macro bellows.
She is over the moon as if several Christmases and birthdays had come at once.

Last night I put a slate shovehappennyboard on Freegle. I had a request in ten minutes and four more by this morning!

Now to sort out more stuff...
 
What on Earth is Freegle ?

It is a version of Freecycle without the political correctness.

You offer things you don't want or ask for things from others. It is an exchange without payment.

I have freecycled/Freegled multiple cameras, sewing machines, vacuum cleaners but rarely asked for anything. I have a house full of too much stuff.
 
It is a version of Freecycle without the political correctness.

You offer things you don't want or ask for things from others. It is an exchange without payment.

I have freecycled/Freegled multiple cameras, sewing machines, vacuum cleaners but rarely asked for anything. I have a house full of too much stuff.

Thanks, Ogg
 
I haven't been able to get any writing done for the past three days, and I'm feeling really frustrated. I keep starting new stories and then stopping them. I currently have about 7 stories for which I have a paragraph or two, but I can't seem to get past a few paragraphs.

Damn it.

Why am I so uninspired?
 
Today I received an item I bought on eBay on 12 February. The postmark was 15 February but there was no explanation from Royal Mail for the delay.

It was of low value so I had just written it off as one of those things...
 
There's a hole in my lawn...

About six months ago, shortly after heavy rain, my granddaughter was hopping around on her pogo stick. She hit a soft patch on the lawn and left a hole about an inch across and two inches deep.

I thought the grass would grow over it. It didn't and the hole grew to about three inches across and four inches deep.

On Monday I decided to do something about it. I filled the hole with topsoil and grass seed and watered over and around it to encourage the grass to spread over the bare patch.

On Tuesday morning I found that the hole had been emptied and was as large as before and the topsoil had gone.

Tuesday afternoon I filled in the hole again with topsoil, fertilizer, and grass seed. I covered it with a large piece of broken pot.

This morning, the large piece of broken pot had been moved and the hole was as big as before. The topsoil had gone. I filled it again, adding fertilizer and grass seed. I covered it with half a paving slab AND the broken pot.

Watch this space for what happens overnight...
 
About six months ago, shortly after heavy rain, my granddaughter was hopping around on her pogo stick. She hit a soft patch on the lawn and left a hole about an inch across and two inches deep.

I thought the grass would grow over it. It didn't and the hole grew to about three inches across and four inches deep.

On Monday I decided to do something about it. I filled the hole with topsoil and grass seed and watered over and around it to encourage the grass to spread over the bare patch.

On Tuesday morning I found that the hole had been emptied and was as large as before and the topsoil had gone.

Tuesday afternoon I filled in the hole again with topsoil, fertilizer, and grass seed. I covered it with a large piece of broken pot.

This morning, the large piece of broken pot had been moved and the hole was as big as before. The topsoil had gone. I filled it again, adding fertilizer and grass seed. I covered it with half a paving slab AND the broken pot.

Watch this space for what happens overnight...
It's a portal to the pits of hell. Satan the worm will crawl from it, thus proving John Milton right. A broken pot on top is no protection :).
 
About six months ago, shortly after heavy rain, my granddaughter was hopping around on her pogo stick. She hit a soft patch on the lawn and left a hole about an inch across and two inches deep.

I thought the grass would grow over it. It didn't and the hole grew to about three inches across and four inches deep.

On Monday I decided to do something about it. I filled the hole with topsoil and grass seed and watered over and around it to encourage the grass to spread over the bare patch.

On Tuesday morning I found that the hole had been emptied and was as large as before and the topsoil had gone.

Tuesday afternoon I filled in the hole again with topsoil, fertilizer, and grass seed. I covered it with a large piece of broken pot.

This morning, the large piece of broken pot had been moved and the hole was as big as before. The topsoil had gone. I filled it again, adding fertilizer and grass seed. I covered it with half a paving slab AND the broken pot.

Watch this space for what happens overnight...

It's a portal to the pits of hell. Satan the worm will crawl from it, thus proving John Milton right. A broken pot on top is no protection :).

So far, so good. Hole and cover unmolested last night. Was it my cat, or the local foxes? But why? It was an empty hole about the size of a coffee mug with nothing unusual about it.
 
So far, so good. Hole and cover unmolested last night. Was it my cat, or the local foxes? But why? It was an empty hole about the size of a coffee mug with nothing unusual about it.

Dig it out, put a decent liner in and plant a flagpole ?
 
So far, so good. Hole and cover unmolested last night. Was it my cat, or the local foxes? But why? It was an empty hole about the size of a coffee mug with nothing unusual about it.

This morning, slab pushed slightly aside and hole one third excavated. By what? And why?
 
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