A Few Notes for a Thursday in August.

I had another frustrating day yesterday trying to get several issues sorted out with British Telecom. I spent a whole hour on the phone being told one thing by one person, having it contradicted by another, and then being given a garbled explanation to a query by a man from billing. I worked his explanation out for myself and read it back to him. ‘Is that correct?’ I asked. ‘Well, sort of,’ he replied. In consequence, I was a little concerned about the contents of my bill which I received in the mail this morning. I fully expected to have to spend another hour on the phone arguing again, but no. The bill was just as I knew it should be and it’s already been paid. Why does life have to be like this? (The phone line fault, however, is still extant. Engineer booked for Saturday.)

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On a brighter note, I finally saw a flock of house martins hunting over the garden this evening. They left it late this year. I used to be able to watch them on a daily basis over the whole summer, but tonight’s show was this year’s first. I expect it’s all to do with climate change. (I wonder whether BT are going to start using that as an excuse for their ineptitude in the matter of customer service before too long.)

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There’s an ad on my email inbox page for EDF, one of the UK’s power suppliers. It’s obviously in response to mounting concern over the insane rise in fuel prices which are bad and about to get a lot worse. It says: Our handy app lets you manage your account on the go, and we’re here for you on WhatsApp and SMS. Note the classic corporate claim: ‘we’re here for you.’ This is typical smoke-screening. The fact is that energy prices are rising at a crazy rate which is unmanageable for very many people and will cause horrendous debt issues, and no amount of 'managing' it on an app is going to make any difference.

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Today’s good news is that we had some proper rain – over an hour of reasonably heavy stuff which we badly needed. And its timing was impeccable. It started just as I was shutting the door to go for my walk, and ended a few minutes after I got back. Since I was wearing a good quality raincoat and wellington boots, only my knees got wet so I didn’t complain.

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And here’s a little oddity to finish the post: I’ve started to have warm feelings towards Sweden and the Swedes for some reason. I still think they have a tendency to exude glumness in the matter of films and TV dramas, but their general demeanour and attitudes have begun to appeal to me. From what I’ve seen and heard, both of and from them, it appears to be calm, considerate, open-minded, intelligent, commendably lacking ego, and altogether agreeable. It’s odd to think that in all my life I’ve never met a Swede, and I’ve certainly never been there, so maybe I’m just imagining it all. Maybe it’s the fact that of all the Nordic nations, theirs is the only flag to have yellow on it. That sort of thing matters to me. Or maybe it was that outrageous back-heeled goal scored by Alicia ‘Mad Dog’ Russo in the Euro semi-final against Sweden, and I just feel sorry for them. It must have been a bitter pill to swallow.