Animal kindness

The other day in the Blog-shire Mustard the chicken was a bit off colour. She had hidden in the coop all day and I wondered if she was broody and needed to be yanked out of it. When I opened the rear door to the coop she made purring sounds. I deduced she was either unwell or had a career ahead as an animal impersonator.

Overcome with a fit of animal-oriented compassion I stroked the poor bird. She stopped purring and starting cooing instead. Encouraged by the thought that she was responding to the affection I stroked her some more. She reacted by dropping an egg out of her rear end!

Am Dram

Mr Blog has become a thespian.

He is appearing in "Shakespeare at Traquair" in Hamlet. One of the cast who plays the ghost had a spot of bother with his costume on the opening night. It appears the arms on his jacket were sewn on back to front!

If you know any tragedian actors with backward facing arms please let me know!!

Age related memory loss

Went to visit eschatology-sister-blog yesterday. She isn't getting any younger and faces the same memory problems we all suffer in mid-life. She had completely forgotten that I was coming so I thought I would honour the occasion with a drawing of her mind...

And now for Sony

As mentioned in the last post Mrs Blog has a phone problem.

Sony Xperia have a website and I was directed to it to log my phone for a repair service. Sadly the website would not let me book a repair. It gave the message "Service unavailable for your device". I wrote back to the person who had emailed and someone else wrote back saying to give them a call.

I did!

Here it goes....

"Have you tried to use our website?"

"Yes it didn't work so I was told to call you."

"No problem. I will get the repair booked in for you." Many minutes later and listening to music while on hold.

"I don't seem to be able to book your phone for repair on our website."

"What can I do?"

"We will send you an email in the next day or so telling what to do."

"But my phone is under warranty. Can't you just get it repaired?"

"No, our website doesn't seem to be working. If you need any more help after this call you can visit our website."

"The one that isn't working?" (Started to giggle).

"If you need any more hlep please visit our website for support."

"The website that doesn't work for you or me?" (giggling quite a bit at this point).

"For any further help pase visit our website. Would you like to complete our telephone customer satisfaction survey after this call?"

"Oh yes please!!" (laughing now)

One can only assume that Orange/EE and Sony are sharing their valuable insights into how to deal with customers

NB: On the survey you are asked how many times you have contacted Sony Xperia to resolve the problem - I discovered that you cannot answer "5" as it only allows once, twice or more than three times!

Orange challenge Vodafone

I have had a rant or two at Vodafone over the years but Orange (now EE) are trying very hard to outdo them for sheer idiocy.

Mrs Blog's phone has developed a fault. I rang Orange and they started off by asking if I wanted to buy "Back-dated" insurance to cover this. As the phone is under warranty till January 2016 that seemed unnecessary.

After ages talking to people at Orange on their "help-line" I was referred to the phone manufacturer Sony (More on them in the next post). Apparently I had to send my phone back to Sony for repair and in the 10-14 days it was gone I would have to buy Mrs Blog a new Orange handset.

Not happy, but faced with no alternative, I set off to the Orange/EE store in Galashiels. The girl there told me she needed to know the SIM card size before she could help me select a suitable handset. As the phone was with Mrs Blog I was unable to comply.

"Never mind," she said. "Try Carphone Warehouse up the street, they know loads about Orange phones and they guarantee to give you the right handset."

Looking like a wally

Last Friday I headed up to Glencoe for a weekend of hill walking. Being in Scotland and given that we are nearly into summer I knew that the weather would be near freezing with real possibilities of snow, hail and sleet.

Half way there I realised I had left my fleece-lined Berghaus jacket at home. Not wanting to miss out on the walking with my chums I needed a solution. The good old Green Welly Stop stocks most items of outdoor kit so I dived in there. On offer was a range of £140 waterproof jackets and a £2.50 plastic poncho.

I learned that the poncho tends to flap about your face in strong winds and does next to nothing to keep  you dry in the process!

And I looked like a total wally!