Thursday, 14 April 2016
Tuesday, 12 April 2016
Useful and useless information
Our washing machine broke down a short while ago and we ordered a new one from Darty. When we ordered it, they told us that they would deliver it some time this afternoon before 5PM, so we made a note in the diary to be at home during that time.
We got a phone call this morning telling us that the delivery would take place between 1PM and 3PM. This is as it should be. I expect that a company charged with delivery should be able to firm up on the exact delivery time as that time approaches, and it was nice of them to tell us.
I contrast this experience with the tracking service proposed by a well-known courier, for a parcel I received not long ago. The website worked well enough, but what it told me is where my parcel was last dealt with, which information is useless to me. When the site told me the package was in Paris, I figured it would come to me from there, so it would arrive that day or the next, but no, the next station was Nantes, and so on.
I don't care how it gets here, the only thing I want to know as a customer, is when it's going to be here. Courier companies would do well to publish, on their website, the only information that is important to me, that is, the time window in which it is expected to be delivered.
Wouldn't it be nice to have:
Your parcel is in transit between Exeter and London. Delivery will be made between Monday 09h00 and Thursday 12h00
Your parcel is in transit between London and Paris. Delivery will be made between Monday 12h00 and Wednesday 12h00, and so on, until
Your parcel in in transit from our local sorting office to your address. Delivery will be between 10h00 and 11h00 today,
with bonus points for telephoning the customer, just to confirm. Well done to Darty for getting it right. Image lifted from Darty website, acknowledgements to Darty.
We got a phone call this morning telling us that the delivery would take place between 1PM and 3PM. This is as it should be. I expect that a company charged with delivery should be able to firm up on the exact delivery time as that time approaches, and it was nice of them to tell us.
I contrast this experience with the tracking service proposed by a well-known courier, for a parcel I received not long ago. The website worked well enough, but what it told me is where my parcel was last dealt with, which information is useless to me. When the site told me the package was in Paris, I figured it would come to me from there, so it would arrive that day or the next, but no, the next station was Nantes, and so on.
I don't care how it gets here, the only thing I want to know as a customer, is when it's going to be here. Courier companies would do well to publish, on their website, the only information that is important to me, that is, the time window in which it is expected to be delivered.
Wouldn't it be nice to have:
Your parcel is in transit between Exeter and London. Delivery will be made between Monday 09h00 and Thursday 12h00
Your parcel is in transit between London and Paris. Delivery will be made between Monday 12h00 and Wednesday 12h00, and so on, until
Your parcel in in transit from our local sorting office to your address. Delivery will be between 10h00 and 11h00 today,
with bonus points for telephoning the customer, just to confirm. Well done to Darty for getting it right. Image lifted from Darty website, acknowledgements to Darty.
Monday, 11 April 2016
Woodwork
When we moved in to Les Hallais, there was a rough fence facing onto the street, that was made of planks of oak nailed to vertical posts. The oak planks looked like they were the result of passing a big tree trunk through a sawmill; completely unfinished and with edges that followed the old outline of the tree.
When we replaced the fence with a box hedge, we took the planks and put them in a corner of the garden where they have been rotting away quietly for the last ten years or so. I have recently cut a few straight planks from them for use as walkways on the veg patch, and I noticed that the wood is in good condition, once you get past the surface rot. Well, it is oak, after all.
I have a fine wooden music stand, a gift from my wife some years ago. It is excellent for holding sheet music, but it's not the most stable of stands if it is holding something heavier. I use a big android tablet for displaying sheet music in electronic (PDF) form, and I'm always concerned when I put it on the stand, that the whole affair will topple, and the tablet will break.
I have an old, heavy and very stable mic stand that I bought ages ago and have hardly used. So, an afternoon with a selection of woodworking tools, and a section of rotting plank, and hey presto, a new, much more stable music stand capable of holding my tablet. It's functional rather than elegant, but it works. And besides, it grieves me to think of that fine oak going to waste.
When we replaced the fence with a box hedge, we took the planks and put them in a corner of the garden where they have been rotting away quietly for the last ten years or so. I have recently cut a few straight planks from them for use as walkways on the veg patch, and I noticed that the wood is in good condition, once you get past the surface rot. Well, it is oak, after all.
I have a fine wooden music stand, a gift from my wife some years ago. It is excellent for holding sheet music, but it's not the most stable of stands if it is holding something heavier. I use a big android tablet for displaying sheet music in electronic (PDF) form, and I'm always concerned when I put it on the stand, that the whole affair will topple, and the tablet will break.
I have an old, heavy and very stable mic stand that I bought ages ago and have hardly used. So, an afternoon with a selection of woodworking tools, and a section of rotting plank, and hey presto, a new, much more stable music stand capable of holding my tablet. It's functional rather than elegant, but it works. And besides, it grieves me to think of that fine oak going to waste.
Thursday, 7 April 2016
Rural living
And the Spring special offer in the local supermarket is......
yep, chicken coops. And the best thing to do with those end-of-season parsnips that are not really fit for the kitchen..... give them to the ex-mayor's donkey.
Lots of the older people around here grew up on farms where donkeys did the ...er... donkey-work, so they are often held in high affection, and people like to keep them, even if there is now no work for them to do.
yep, chicken coops. And the best thing to do with those end-of-season parsnips that are not really fit for the kitchen..... give them to the ex-mayor's donkey.
Lots of the older people around here grew up on farms where donkeys did the ...er... donkey-work, so they are often held in high affection, and people like to keep them, even if there is now no work for them to do.
Monday, 4 April 2016
Windy
It has been windy here recently. That thing on the roof is a motion-activated, solar-powered nightlight. It's not supposed to be there.
Friday, 1 April 2016
Curry
For our last day in England, Anita wanted to visit a dolls' house shop in Whitchurch, and I used it as an opportunity to meet up with an old school friend. Melvin is a confirmed bachelor, retired from the IT sector with plenty of time to indulge his wide-ranging curiosity wherever it manifests.
Over a coffee and bun in H's Coffee Shop, we discussed low-energy housing, plumbing, electric motors, soldering and building regs. He showed me the apps he has created for his Android device, displaying the free-to-download O.S. maps, and railway timetables.
For lunch we found a local curry place, Blue Ginger, that was proudly displaying a 5/5 food hygiene rating on the door. I admitted to the owner, who introduced himself as Nick, that a top-rank food hygiene award was not normally something to be expected of Indian restaurants. He was keen to point out that they were Indian, from Goa, and not, say, from Bangladesh. The curry was excellent.
In the afternoon, we visited the Hillier garden, that was offering some fine displays of Winter colour. And a cat. And from then on to the ferry home.
Over a coffee and bun in H's Coffee Shop, we discussed low-energy housing, plumbing, electric motors, soldering and building regs. He showed me the apps he has created for his Android device, displaying the free-to-download O.S. maps, and railway timetables.
For lunch we found a local curry place, Blue Ginger, that was proudly displaying a 5/5 food hygiene rating on the door. I admitted to the owner, who introduced himself as Nick, that a top-rank food hygiene award was not normally something to be expected of Indian restaurants. He was keen to point out that they were Indian, from Goa, and not, say, from Bangladesh. The curry was excellent.
In the afternoon, we visited the Hillier garden, that was offering some fine displays of Winter colour. And a cat. And from then on to the ferry home.
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