Sunday Roast: faking a smile with the coffee to go

Here would be where I normally write something witty and funny and describe my week in a pithy manner. Um, sorry folks, no can do. Things happened, I know they did, just they aren’t very interesting. But I will say this: the RLO has upped his Facebook stalking and is now besmirching my reputation across the ‘net by denying that I can make quilts. I so can you disbelieving… Oh, I can’t think of something rude enough to say, so I’m just going to content myself with sticking my tongue out at you and holding back favours at work. Hell hath no fury like besmirched Project Support 😛 😉

And now that I have quite gleefully said more than I should on the blog, it’s on with the show.

A new school being built in Peterborough is to have no playground. And where precisely do they expect the kids to go on their breaks? And to get the fresh air and exercise that everyone is pretty much convinced actually HELPS children learn?

A web-based TV channel for deaf viewers has launched.

Everyone’s favourite astronomer, Patrick Moore has blammed silly TV on women. And then called for separate channels. It’s all because we’ve gone PC and made women commanders, apparently… Nope, I just don’t have the words for this one.

As someone who’s known she’s allergic to artificial colours and flavourings for a LONG time, this warning is hardly news to me. Ah, E102, E124, E110, E122, E104 and E129, my arch-nemesisis. Your days are numbered.

From a country that still has no seat-belt laws (and what is with that insanity btw?!) talk of banning texting whilst driving is a big thing. Who cares if it’s a “challenge for law enforcement”, it’s the right thing! (Mobile phones & driving is a big hobby-horse for me. Don’t get me started!)

Jay has just the thing for a soggy Sunday afternoon – Toblerone Fudge (and come back to the comments Jay, we miss you!)

I love it when I find new blogs and as we all know how much I like to share, here’s the latest gem I’ve discovered: Anne Helmond’s blog and the post that snaffled me.

Ever wondered why there are no unicorns in heaven?

We’re always quick to broadcast bad customer experiences on the internet, but we rarely trumpet good service. Well, I want to share the good experience I had with Dolphin Music. The Brother Dearest wanted some guitar pedal thingy for his birthday and provided a link to what he wanted on the Dolphin website. Now normally I would have then gone to see if I could find it cheaper elsewhere or on a site I knew and trusted (e.g., Amazon) but as I wouldn’t know a decent sustain pedal if it got up and introduced itself, I decided to go with the one that I had the link for. At least I knew I would be getting the right one! So I added it to my basket, payed for it, and waited. This was on a Sunday midday-ish. I shortly got the email saying “thank you for your order” and an hour later I got an email from Dolphin telling me that my order of 1x sustain pedal had been dispatched. They then proceeded to provided me with the name of the courier, the tracking number, and links to the various ways I could track my order. I was told to expect my purchase within about 48 hours but that the courier could tell me more. Sure enough, I got home from work on Tuesday to find one sustain pedal had arrived in the post. I expect I would have got it on Monday if it hadn’t been a bank holiday…

So far so average, though the extra tracking information was nice. What made me go “oooh!” was an email I got on Friday that said

“Thank you for your recent order with Dolphin Music. Your order was shipped on *DATE* and you should have received it by now. If you haven’t then please call us on *FREEPHONE NUMBER* and we’ll see what’s happened”

It then went on to clearly state their returns policy in case they’d delivered the wrong thing and just generally be nice and unexpectedly helpful. The kind of service you expect from a small family firm that genuinely cares about it’s customers, not a faceless internet organisation. Bravo Dolphin Music I say, bravo!

(And just checking the website again, I thought they looked familiar – they have a shop in Liverpool that was a favourite ‘lurk and lust’ venue for both my brother and myself)

Pretty art and the thinkspace gallery.

My Flickr Score is 1790. What’s yours?

What do you get when you cross art, literature, and modern printing techniques? 41 Places of course.

And that’s it. I’m off to work on more of The Never Ending Quilt that I promised the Crazy Canalman two years ago (eek) and then provide coffee and towels to Brother Dearest, the Crazy Canalman and S who’ve been out on a boat in the English Channel all weekend. My family are just certifiable.

12 thoughts on “Sunday Roast: faking a smile with the coffee to go

  1. (1) Talking about texting while driving, somebody should look into the possibility of TAKING PICTURES while driving.. 🙂

    (2) My Flickr score is 1302. BTW, what’s this for? LOL.

  2. Opp.. My previous #1 comment should have read “Talking about texting while driving, somebody should look into the possibility of banning TAKING PICTURES while driving.. :)”

  3. while I shudder at the memory of being sent shivering out into the cold at break time, how can you possibly have a school with no outside area?? What about PE lessons for a start? Are the kids not going to play football, hockey, netball? What about a bit of fresh air? How very bizarre.

  4. I’m glad you liked my blog post, I am still considering in turning it into an essay but I am still looking for the right angle. In the meanwhile I am really enjoying your 41 Places tip.

    My Flickr score is 1223 which is “no official number and it’s definitely not to be taken seriously” but it is a nice and beautiful looking number nonetheless 🙂

  5. Neko – you found it. I do on occasion listen to R4, but not so much lately for various reasons (no radio for one!)

    Pelf – I have no idea what the Flickr Score is for, but it is fun, though I’m not sure which is better, a high score or a low score! And welcome to Bright Meadow and the comments 🙂

    Moose – as I said, what about the fresh air. Break was normally a case of playing “dodge the football” and “finding a quiet indoor spot I could read a book” (the music school was great for this), but I have fond memories of primary school and running wild in the playgrounds. It was the best bit!

    Anne – 1223 is indeed a gorgeous number. And welcome to Bright Meadow and the comments as well 🙂

  6. Thank you, the comment area of a nice blog is always a good place to be.

    The Flickr score seems to be some kind of ranking system just like Technorati’s authority rank or Google’s PageRank. Although they state “it’s just a number extracted from all public values (photos, favs, contacts, etc.)” when I compare your score to my score you score higher because of factors such as: more uploaded pictures, usage of more tags, more contacts, a longer time active on Flickr. Even though I have only been active for twenty days on Flickr I have a fairly high score because I score higher than average number of uploads daily and number of sets used. The stats are compared to the average Flickr user (the plus and minus symbols) which implies a ranking. I think they say “it’s just a number” because the method/formula they use is probably very crude and not as sophisticated as Google’s PageRank or Technorati’s Authority Rank.

    Just my 2 Flickr cents 🙂 And before I dive any deeper into this way too interesting topic I am going outside to run, it is Sunday and the sun is shining!

  7. Ok, so I had to leave a comment to tell you what I just saw as I was driving home from the store- A police car swerving across the center lane and then back into his own, kind of abruptly…it made me peer in at him as our vehicles passed and he was chattering away on his cellphone. Yes, I live in Washington state (where we do have seatbelt laws, btw). LOL. I guess it WILL be hard to enforce.

  8. Jay and meowkaat – it’s great to see you both back in the comments where you belong 🙂

    And meowkaat – that’s actually really rather scary! You expect the police at least to be good drivers and to have enough common sense to know that talking on your mobile is not conducive to good driving! Then again, not using a handsfree device has only technically been illegal in the UK for a few months, so I guess I shouldn’t get too far up on my high horse before I fall off the other side. I have scared everyone at work though – they know they’d better have a damn good reason to be driving and talking on the mobile even WITH a handsfree. After all, I’m project support and we can make life hell in all KINDS of interesting ways. Mwhahaha

  9. I haven’t entirely grasped what that 41places is (lucky it’s not the ‘yet another online social tool’), but I like it a lot. We should have it here as well. Good link, Cas.

  10. I’m with you in the “not totally sure” camp re 41 Places Nils – but I like the idea of it. But really we should be thanking Neko as she’s the one who put me on to it 🙂

    (Yes, I am a bad blogger not crediting my sources)

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