Want to do a long walk. Now. Suggestions?

Hi peeps,

I’m getting fed up beyond description festering here at home, unable to sell the house and unable to get a job (overqualified…).

I want to do a long walk. I might as well be out walking as sitting around here, festering. I realise it’s the wrong time of year, though. Still, does anybody have any suggestions? Is it too late for LEJOG this year? Too late for France?

Keith Floyd — Death of a legend

I read just now that Keith Floyd died today, and it came as a real shock.

Keith Floyd was the first of the TV chefs that I ever enjoyed watching, and in fact I enjoyed his first couple of series so much that I used to transport my video recorder round the country with me so that I could be absolutely *sure* of recording the episodes. And video recorders were bloody great big things, back in those almost prehistoric days.

RIP, Keith. You brought a lot of joy to many people, as well as (presumably) a lot of unexpected royalties to The Stranglers ♥

ZOMG… I’ve forgotten how to post!

Wow… I can hardly believe how long it is since I last posted here. Then again, I suppose I can believe it, because that’s just how chaotic I seem to have become. Sigh…

Well, I’m off on the TGO Challenge a week from today, and since I last posted here I’ve acquired both a puppy (Piglet — a 5m old Border Terrier) and a cat (Puss-Puss — she’s really my father’s cat, but Daddy can’t look after her any more so now she lives with Piglet and me).

If I can manage to remember how to post this I’ll have more to add, but in the meantime let’s just see if I can get it up on the site

Life affirming stuff!

This sounds like a joke, but I’m happy to say it’s true.

In Massachusetts 3 days ago, New Bedford firefighter Al Machado saved a cat with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation after rescuing it from an apartment fire. 2 cats died in the fire, but the firefighters saved a number of other animals.

Little Peewiglet tells a friend about the rescue

Little Peewiglet is going to write to the firefighter to thank him for what he did.

Update: Beware Note Tab Pro / Plimus / Fookes Software

Unusually, I was irritated enough yesterday morning to post about what happened when I paid Fookes Software via Paypal for a licence to use their product, Note Tab Pro. Instead of receiving an email with a registration code, I instead received an email from Plimus, who (it turned out) handle web-sales for Fookes Software, telling me that there was going to be a delay of up to 12 hours whilst their staff reviewed the order “for quality purposes”.

In fact, the registration code arrived about 20 minutes later, but of course I hadn’t known that it was going to do so, and I was so annoyed by Plimus’s “we’ll take control of your money and just hang onto it while we conduct reviews into our internal operating procedures” practice that I emailed Fookes Software to draw it to their attention.

Later in the day, someone from the Fookes Software Helpdesk wrote back to tell me that the delay had occurred because the email address I used for my order was different from my Paypal email address, as a result of which Plimus had carried out a “manual review”. In fact, I don’t believe the email I supplied via the website did differ from my Paypal email address, but even if it had done I don’t consider it appropriate for a vendor (or its agent) to process a transaction–which has the effect of removing money from a person’s bank account via Paypal–and ‘ask questions’ later. I’ve been using Paypal for many years, and I’ve never had this experience before.

Anyway, Fookes Software made it clear in email that they didn’t think there was any sort of problem. There was no sort of acknowledgement that any of this might have been the source of legitimate irritation or concern, and despite the fact that my transaction was with them they suggested that I should take the matter up with Plimus if I was dissatisfied.

The tone of the email from Fookes Software simply added fuel to the fire, and so I wrote back to explain the respects in which their response seemed to be inaccurate and/or to miss the point. They didn’t have the courtesy to respond to the points that I’d made, but later in the day simply forwarded to me an email they’d received from Plimus. The Plimus email didn’t address the points either (I don’t know whether Fookes Software had actually forwarded my email to them or not), but it included the following:

“You seem to have already explained Plimus’s manual review process to [my name].There’s not much else to add, other than maybe to reassure her that if anything happened during the review process to NOT approve her order, the money would have been immediately refunded back to the paypal account.”

Is it just me, or does anyone else think this casual manner of dealing with other people’s money is completely inappropriate? When we provide vendors with our bank details (either directly, or via a third party site like Paypal) I think we’re entitled to expect that the vendor will recognise its legal (and moral) obligation to provide what we’ve paid for without delay. If there’s an internal review to be conducted, then I feel I’m entitled to expect it to be conducted on their time, and not mine. When I go shopping for vegetables, I don’t expect to hand over my money at the till only to find the sales assistant slipping my bag of veggies under the desk and telling me to wait while his/her supervisor conducts a review into the way in which he/she dealt with my order. If supermarkets tried that, customers would be calling in the police!

This online practice is exactly the same, except that ISTM that in one respect it’s worse. If I’ve handed over cash I have only that cash to lose, but when I’ve handed over my bank details to strangers over the internet I have absolutely no idea what the person on the receiving end might attempt to do with them next. If we can’t have faith in online retailers to conduct these sorts of transactions scrupulously, and with complete transparency, then the whole system breaks down.

Fookes Software have made it crystal clear that they consider me to be making a fuss about nothing, and it may be that Plimus feel the same. At least Plimus, though, had the courtesy to contact me in email earlier today in order to explain their practice. They did *not* suggest that there was any issue about my email address (and indeed I’ve spoken to Paypal, who have confirmed that no enquiry was made by Plimus of them in relation to the transaction), and so for the second time I’m left wondering why Fookes Software suggested that in the first place. Instead, Plimus simply explained that they subject a number of orders to random, retrospective checks as part of their standard, automated anti-fraud systems. For the reasons set out above I feel they’ve missed the point, but I do appreciate their having had the courtesy to contact me about this.

In the meantime, I won’t be buying any further products from Fookes Software, and nor will I be buying any products online via Plimus.

Rant! Beware Note Tab Pro / Plimus / Fookes Software

Bloody hell! I’ve been using a trial version of Note Tab Pro for a month or so, as an HTML editor. This morning I spotted a change that I need to make to a page on my website, but when I tried to start the programme it told me that the trial period was over.

I went to the web page and paid for it with Paypal–£20–and although the company, Plimus, took my money immediately I received an email from them as follows.

Thank you for submitting your order for NoteTab-NoteTab Pro using Plimus. Your order
is currently being reviewed by our staff for quality purposes, this process is
usually completed within a few minutes, however, please allow up to 12 hours to hear
back from us. If you wish to expedite your approval, please click on the following
link to add your comments:
[URL removed by me]

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, your order will be processed
shortly. If you have any question about your order or wish to leave us a comment,
please click on the following link:
[URL removed by me]

Important: Do not submit another order through our system as this will further delay
the processing and may cause a double-billing to your credit card.

Thanks for your patience,

Plimus Sales

What a bloody cheek! They’ve taken my money (my Paypal account confirms it) but they haven’t sent me the registration code! I’ve emailed them, but they haven’t yet responded.

What on earth makes manufacturers who sell software online for immediate download imagine that it’s okay to make people who’ve paid for a product wait any period of time at all, let alone an indefinite period, while they ‘review the order for quality purposes’? I came across this sort of thing a couple of times a few years ago, when online selling was less common, but not recently. Nor had I expected to encounter it from the vendor of a well-known product like this.

Rant, rant, rant…

Edited to add:

Well, it all arrived about 20 minutes later, so all’s well etc etc. It turns out that Fookes Software, who produce Note Tab Pro, employ Plimus to sell it for them. I’ve written to Fookes Software to tell them about this weird practice, and I’ll be interested to see whether they reply or not.

/rant

Music for Sunday evening

I just love this song, so I couldn’t resist the urge to post it here.

There’s no religious significance in it for me, btw–I don’t consider myself to be a ‘religious’ person, partly because IMO organised religions of virtually every hue are responsible for/used as an excuse for just about all of the continuing significant conflict in the world.

However (i) I love the rhythms and the tune, particularly at the beginning, and (ii) the lyrics certainly do strike a chord with me. I’d love to see the sentiment translated into reality.

Maybe next time around.

Sad news, today, for all Challengers

Tony Hardman (& Cameron) — 2006: 10 Challenges in

I heard earlier today from Challenge pals that Tony Hardman died last Wednesday while walking the GR5. He was only 64. His walking partner couldn’t wake him in the morning, and it seems that he’d suffered a heart attack in his sleep. When it’s my turn, I hope that’s exactly how I’ll trot out.

Tony was a lovely, warm, friendly and generous man. I met him in the Knoydart on the Challenge in 2006, and shared a couple of bothy nights with him and some other pals. I tripped when descending from some hill or other the day after Kinbreack bothy, and after Bob and Rose had helped me to the Tomdoun Hotel Tony offered to carry my pack for me: all the rest of the way across Scotland, if necessary.

When we got to Montrose, Cameron presented him with his certificate and wee gifty for completing 10 Challenges. That’s him above, grinning with delight.

RIP, Tony.

Pathetic self-indulgence, and a conspiracy

I heard some sad news today, and now I’m fed up. So I’m going out to buy some junk food and slob around eating it in front of the telly. I can only hope that the bloody tarantula spider doesn’t come out again, and demand my food with menaces.

I mentioned wee creatures invading my space the other day, and I reckon that they’re developing a network now and ganging up against me. Last night I awoke at about 4am to find two wasps buzzing like twin-engined Cessnas around my head in bed. It was pretty scary. More specifically, they were buzzing around the lamp on the side table, which I’d failed to turn off when I’d fallen asleep over John Hillaby’s Journey Through Britain. That was no comfort, though, the lamp being only about 8 inches from my head, and so I had to decamp to the arm chair in the next room and sleep there.

That was scary too, though, since the last time I saw the tarantula spider it was disappearing under the arm chair with a glare, and waving two legs aggressively in my direction. As I fell asleep on the chair, wrapped in my formerly spider infested Rab sleeping bag, I’m almost sure I heard mutterings from the carpet, and I dreamed that the blasted thing had crawled up the sleeping bag onto my tummy and that I’d had to brush it off my chest.

*takes deep, cleansing breath*

I need junk food NOW.