Memory

There is more and more evidence that people's memory is highly selective and unreliable. (Here and Here) So when recording my previous post I carefully copied all the information from the provided sheet. Tim suggested that the Downton Mild was in fact called "Moonraker", and that is how I remember it. It is not however what is written on the sheet. If I get the chance to go back, and if the beer is on, I will check on the barrel.

Last night we were at a 21st birthday party. The children arrived home well after we did, and we spent an hour or so in the middle of the night chatting with them. One went straight to bed and says he has no memory of last night at all. The others are telling him what happened, or at least their version of what happened - which may owe more to invention than memory!

At the party we met the lady who organises the comedy night. She had heard that I couldn't remember the name of the last comedian. She told me the names of the first one and the last one, and the ones who will be at the next comedy night. Despite standing there and repeating the names to myself to try to fix the memory, I'm sorry to say that it has gone. Rex is all I can remember. So to google. "Rex comedian" --> Rex Boyd and that's him, I remember the outline, and the face.

While discussing plans for our summer series at Christ Church, we all agreed that a memory verse would be a good idea. We have tried this before, with limited success. I cannot decide if we should choose one verse for the whole seven weeks, or one for each week. Memorising scripture is another thing that I have not succeeded at, and I have to say that aids like Bible Gateway just help me to be lazy.

21st Birthday Party

2008_1025 Helen Sheppard 21st

You may think I'm a little old for a 21st Birthday party (OK, OK, way too old). It was great to get invited, and although I don't attend the dance floor (I used to, but I have never danced), I did have a good time. Many of the young people from the church were there, and also one or two of the older ones, and loads of Helen's friends. I hope that Helen also enjoyed herself.

21st Birthday / On-line Shopping

21st Birthday
On Saturday the family gathered in the Inn on the Green. Mainly the family, and a few friends. Lunch was unremarkable, the food was mainly alright, but some parts of it were not very nice. It has apparently been refurbished - it looked to me as though it wasn't finished. The staff were pleasant and friendly, but it isn't enough to make up for the slightly disappointing food. Still the company was good, and I hope that our 21 year-old enjoyed himself. He has now borrowed my Previa and taken his friends to a haunted camp site. Which brings me to ...

On-line Shopping
It's my usual thing for Christmas, and this year was no exception. However, this year I have to return things, that's not something I've had to do before. Shopping at Amazon(.co.uk) is easy, I wonder what returns are like.

I also purchased, more recently a book, which I downloaded, so that I got it in time. This was from a site called lulu.com. Now registering and paying can be easy or complicated. On lulu it's more towards complicated. The site is designed for people to sell products, so why make it so difficult for the buyer? Surely if it is a site for selling then most of the hits will be buyers - the site should be tuned to their requirements - my requirements in this case. When I sign up, I'd expect to be asked why I came to the site, not told that I can now start my project. Mind you, buying was a bit of a project!

Now to the third, and so far least satisfactory experience. My son wanted to borrow my Previa. To do this the insurance needs to be upgraded. Budget said they'd ring back in 2–3 hours. That was this morning, no call so far. We tried DayCover. An interesting experience - their site will not accept credit card details!!!!!!! Amazing and unbelievable. How do they do business? My son phoned them and got the policy agreed, they said they would send an e-mail. No e-mail. After the start time of the policy he called again, and they claimed to correct the e-mail address (or did they?), but still no e-mail.

Perhaps I should have titled this entry "Where not to buy ...".

The UK used to have a reputation for poor customer service, seems to me its getting worse again.

We should all be proud of what we do, and try to do our best at work, sometimes the systems defeat us. On those occasions we have a duty to do what we can to improve things for our customers. That's just common sense, from my point of view.