This is going to be a quick one. Firstly because the last
day of the month blog never gets many readers and secondly the little DIY job I
have been working on all week has gone wrong. It seems that not only can I not
count 42 packs of
resin in a tiny van but my measuring skills are not what they were. My
home made wooden cabinet is about 30 mm too high to fit under the TV as planned. Fairly
easy to modify but it needs to be done before Tuesday.
So let’s do a quick month end round up.
Parking
There was an Easter Market at nearby Lesnes Abbey yesterday and just for once it
was a nice sunny day. The result was inevitable, cars parked around every yellow
lined corner, wheels on the footpath and residents’ drives blocked. Some
drivers managing to offend in more than one way.
Bexley Council could have made a small fortune with PCNs but they have closed
their reporting phone line, never opened on a Saturday anyway, and I wasn’t
going to photograph each one and submit reports individually. No tickets issued
by the time I took a second look.
Express bus SL3
I
don’t often go into Bexleyheath but believe it or not there is nowhere nearer to
Abbey Wood to buy a birthday card. Most of my trips to Bexleyheath are for Card
Factory. (Have you seen Sainsbury’s selection and prices?)
So for the fourth time since the SL3 service started
I walked to Abbey Wood station instead of the nearest bus stop to see if I could catch one.
I have quite often seen two SL3s travelling in convoy and one broken down on
Woolwich Road but every time I set out to find one there are
none within the next
half hour. The shortest wait reported by my phone app has been 25 minutes. Last
Tuesday just after 9 it was 27 minutes.
Fortunately a 301 was due in 45 seconds and it takes a more direct route, albeit with lots of stops.
An Express bus running at half hourly intervals is not an Express bus.
Another Sadiq Khan failure to deliver.
Freedom of Information
On Tuesday it will be 20 working days since I submitted an FOI request to Bexley Council
which brings my record to something approaching one every three years. It was
basically the same
as the one submitted by @tonyofsidcup for which he got a rejection notice. I really do
hope I don’t have to complain to the Information Commissioner.
Illegal immigration
A subject I have considered commenting on before but thought better of it.
However you might guess that I am not an enthusiast for
changing British culture
irrevocably and I blame Tony Blair and the range of increasingly useless politicians who followed him.
But maybe I can quote a neighbour, a lovely Nigerian lady who came here to study
on a visitor’s visa. She has recently qualified as a medical professional and is
on course to be given British citizenship. I’ve forgotten what the qualification was but it wasn’t a nurse.
Like far too many people she struggles to pay her rent and has to waste time fighting a rogue landlord and she is absolutely
livid that if you come here in a rubber boat with no documentation you can be fed
and live rent free and given pocket money at our expense.
Black she may be but who cares? An asset to the country and a much better
neighbour than some I could name. (Her views on that subject, as with most things, are the same as mine.)
6% price increases
Tomorrow most charges levied by Bexley Council will be increased. On average by
6%. Some by more than that and some less, where they have realised that their
previous greed was proving to be counter productive. Be aware that no Bexley car
park will be free overnight.
Coventry Building Society
After temporarily confiscating my savings, the letter with instructions on how
to retrieve them promised to be sent last Tuesday has still not arrived. They did phone me
yesterday to discuss my complaint but I told them to forget it. At most I will
get a letter to say sorry but they are most unlikely to change their ways.
Fortunately I had another source of funds. Hard luck to anyone who might not,
Coventry Building Society wouldn’t care.
King Clean Steam Cleaning
This disreputable outfit has gone quiet. Presumably they
know that I have written evidence of their collusion with the neighbour to
defraud me and they know that there is no way they had to buy 42 packs of quick
setting resin to do the job - well some of it.
I can still poke my finger into the resin nearly a week later.
Maybe they don’t want to be investigated ny HMRC either.
The March weather
My solar panel sunshine logger says that March 2024 has been a pretty awful month saved to
some extent by the morning sunshine of the last few days. But last year was
far worse and 2013 and 2018 were a bit worse; but overall it has been duller than
the best year’s March by up to 80%.
The longer days will improve solar generation which is just as well. The lower
price cap from tomorrow has
resulted in my tariff being increased. Thanks Octopus Energy.