Brennig Jones (and friends)

Some photos taken over the last few days…

So… I was driving up the mountain when I found these two loons. OK, I’ll concede this is a slight fib. Here is The Lovely S and my very lovely Daughter.

And here’s the village that Daughter lives in, the top village just below the snow line.

This is Daughter and me. Despite her skinny build she weighs approximately half a ton and her weight is breaking my back.

This, as you can see from the sign behind, is the tallest girl in the world. Also, the best looking. Not that I’m in the least bit biased, oh no.

A random distance shot of the snow line.

And to finish the snaps for now… a close-up of the snow line.

B.

It’s 06.25 on 30th December 2007, we’re in our hotel in Spain’s Sierra Nevada mountains, Andalusia (Europe’s 2nd highest range – after The Alps).

The Lovely S has just got out of bed, thrown on some clothes and gone hunting/gathering for some water.

She’s taken two empty bottles to the mountain spring, half a dozen paces from the door to our wing of the hotel.

I’m unsure why we’re both awake, given the earliness of the hour and the blackness of the day outside.

But the thirstiness must be related to the very salty Pan de Ajo we had as our starter last night.

As I lie here and wait for The Lovely S to return I mull over how the visit to see Daughter is going.

My summary is ‘all in all, pretty well’.

However, there are small signs that my Ex is slowly poisoning my daughter’s mind.

Yesterday Daughter started to say to The Lovely S, “Mum and I feel sorry for…” then changed it to “I feel sorry for you S, being married to Dad”.

This is typical of my Ex.

She is a selfish, self-obsessed, poisonous-minded bitch.

That she’s being so blatant about polluting Daughter’s mind with her own hateful, spiteful behaviours and attitudes saddens – but completely unsurprises – me.

There have been other instances, other half-started, repeated conversations that Daughter has quickly realised might be hurtful so has altered or aborted them in mid-flow.

I don’t know what to do about it – I strongly suspect there is nothing I can do; no real option but to let my Ex get away with murdering my character behind my back.

The night before last, instead of being in the house when we returned Daughter home, my Ex was in a bar with a group of her friends – all ex-pats.

The fact they were all ex-pats saddens me a little too.

I’m sure they’re a perfectly lovely little coven.

My Ex is showing the selfish, spiteful behaviours that are so typical of her normal demeanour that it makes me uncomfortable just being near her.

I left the bar with the feeling that I’d been viewed, adjudicated and judged wanting – all with no opportunity to bring a case for the defence.

I wonder what half-truths and blatant lies she’s telling them.

But yesterday my Ex went shopping in El Ejido to buy a new laptop.

It’s good to know that the £1,000 a month I’m giving her is being so well used.

I wonder if she tells her little coven how generously she’s being supported…

No I don’t. I know the answer to that one straight away.

It’s no wonder that for all of the years that my Ex and I lived together I was so dreadfully unwell.

B.

The evening has an air of Sunday Night about it, don’t ask me why, it just does.

I’m not back to school tomorrow.

It just does.

So I’m sitting here doing my usual Sunday Night tasks:
Backing up the laptop on to Drive A – the half-terabyte external disk drive I keep for such purposes.

And then backing up the laptop on to Drive B – another half-terabyte external disk drive I keep, etc, etc.

And reading blogs – not in a haphazard way, just the ones that I regularly read.

Except everyone’s being a little quiet for some reason or other.

Random!

And dipping in to that other Sunday Night activity while all the backing up (beep, beep, beep… geddit? Oh, I’m so funny!) is going on – iPoding.

Or to be more correct – weeding out those tracks which have been relegated from my iPod playlist and adding a little of whatever tickles my fancy from the iStore or from the extensive CD collection that lives, Harry Potter-like, in the cupboard under the stairs.

That’s how I came across the reference in the earlier post to Adele – her name and the words ‘Home Town’ were on a Notepad file on a pen drive.

A little googling got me to where I wanted to be but…

Bit annoyed I can’t download Hometown Glory!

I make digital recordings or electronic notes – when I hear tracks – when I hear something I like; I tend to leave the notes all over the place, come upon them weeks later.

It’s such a pleasant surprise to sample a 30-second clip of a track and think… Yep, that’s really brilliant. I’ll get it!

It validates my original thinking.

Not hugely detailed notes though, just the name of the artist and track name (if the radio announcer bothers to back-announce such details – but you’d be amazed just how bloody shoddy some of the DJs on Radio 1 are when it comes to such a basic job function. Or maybe you wouldn’t – most Radio 1 DJs being employed these days for some deeply obscure quality that’s far too deep for the rest of mankind to fathom. Yes Fearne Cotton, I’m talking about you, you talentless, feckless, brainless, gob on a stick bimbo).

Anyway.

The Lovely S sits beside me, similarly engaged in the iPod world – but for the first time.

She is listening to a Russell Brand podcast – giggling away at it in a very slightly demented manner.

Currently being imported in to my installation of iTunes, as I prattle away, is the album Ágætis Byrjun by Sigur Rós.

I’ve got their second album – Takk – but this one’s a new discovery and I look forward to learning much about it.

Speaking of music – have you got the blog-post naming convention yet? I started this run ages ago! Apart from the OU posts which are named far more prosaically.

Woo!

Prosaically and in context!

And Oh My God!

I’ve just realised I’m writing two blog posts at the same time – one in Word for a later time and this one in WordPress for now.

How complicated!

Wail!

It’s OK now though. I’ve saved and closed the other one, back here with you now, totally focussed once more.

Listening to Hometown Glory again. Loud.

That’s the same piano sample that Timbaland used on Apologise, right?

Just realised, this is a bit ‘stream of consciousness’ but that wasn’t intentional, just turned out this way.

Like life.

Just turned out this way – no Great Master Plan.

Hang on, Hometown Glory needs resetting.

Back wiv ya.

How’s yours been – Christmas, I mean?

Why do I feel so worn out when the most energetic thing I’ve done was Vin-related duties on Christmas Day?

Apart from that I’ve been waited on, hand and foot.

Except my feet weren’t actually waited on.

Stupid expression.

Anyway, I have been waited on (but not in a partial-body kind of way).

I’m the vegetarian – the sole vegetarian (the soul vegetarian too) – of the gathering.

And yet I was spoilt for choice when it came to eating.

The Lovely S’s mother always makes such a determined effort to see me trundle out of the house on wheels because my fat little legs no longer work properly.

It’s flattering really, that she goes to such an effort to ensure that I’m so well catered for (pun!).

But Oh My Lord did we do some eating over Christmas.

I might have a few days on light food while I’m in Spain, otherwise Vin’s going to complain his arse off on New Year’s Day when I climb aboard.

Though, frankly, light food is what I’m going to be on anyway – La Alpujarra and La Sierra Nevada not exactly being vegetarian enclaves, oh no.

Ah, I see that I’ve eased out of prattling and in to rambling mode.

A sure sign that I should close down and head for bed.

Night!

B.

Go here:
http://www.myspace.com/adelelondon

Do this:
Click on ‘Hometown Glory’

Brilliant.

You’re listening to Adele.

Not available for download though.

B.

(this post is aimed at those poor folk who have to drive in London)

Yes!

I have it!

After a great deal of thinking time (four and a quarter minutes) I’ve come up with the perfect solution for motoring in London that I shall call The Motorist’s Opportunity to Bite Back.

This is the traffic-jam buster that is also a congestion charge-beater.

Yes indeed my friends, I’m about to reveal how you can legally avoid the congestion charge whilst, at the same time, increasing your journey time.

So how do you poor London-bound folk do it? How can you achieve the seemingly impossible double – improve your journey time in London whilst simultaneously (and legally) avoiding the congestion charge?

Simple.

Get yourself down to your local car auction and…

Buy a cheap minibus.

Why?

Because minibuses are exempt from the congestion charge.

And minibuses can use bus lanes.

At a recent car auction in Berkshire two minibuses were sold for £1,950 and £2,010 respectively.

Both had six months road tax and a full mot.

How much is a year’s worth of congestion-charge exempt, jam-busting bus-lane motoring use worth to you?

For a one-off payment of around £2,000 you get congestion charge exempt travel and faster travel times for a year and you get to own the vehicle and use it in future years too!

B.

Just finished watching Love Actually.

Question:

Am I the only person in the English-speaking world who finds it depressing to sit in front of this film and witness – first hand – the quality of writing that Richard Curtis produces?

His scripts are so annoyingly… excellent.

Writing like that… it shouldn’t be allowed.

What hope is there for the rest of us, as long as Richard Curtis continues to produce writing of this standard?

Even if the RomCom genre isn’t your bag and you don’t like this film, you have to appreciate the standard of writing that went in to building this brilliant piece of entertainment.

Bastard!

Shouldn’t be allowed.

B.

Last night’s text from Sue at the yard said that the rip in the near hind-quarter of Vin’s turnout rug has got too big. She asked if she could use the Heavyweight Rambo that’s on the top rack of my shelving.

I rang her to ask if his rug would be good enough to last for another day. I explained that I didn’t want to use that Rambo, it costs well over £250 these days.

I can think of a better use of £250 than chucking it down the throat of another horse.

I also said that the Rambo is a very heavyweight rug – and probably much too warm for Vin, given that he’s only got a low trace clip.

Anyway, this behaviour; it’s the gelding thing.

They nag at each other all the time.

Sometimes they’re only playing, sometimes they play too hard.

But teeth and shod hooves flash around and sometimes these things make contact with a little more force than intended – sometimes they make contact with precisely for amount of force that was intended!

And so the relatively minor rip had turned in to a big gaping tear.

This morning we tried Countrywide Stores; if I’m buying rugs I usually call there first. Sadly we struck out – 6’6″ very high-necked medium weight turnout rugs weren’t in stock.

Nags Needs in Fernhill Heath came through with a nice-looking rug that ticked all the right boxes for £63.

Back at the yard I sized and fitted it and as you can see it fits brilliantly:

After the rug-fitting I tacked him up and we schooled in the arena for 45 minutes, then it was back on with the rug and out in the field with his mates.

It took just under seven minutes for Vinnie to stroll over to the big mud patch, get down on his knees, slide over on to his side and then roll up and over on to his back.

One nice new shiny rug… covered in mud.

I don’t really care about that – I just hope he can make it last without getting it ripped!

And… You may remember that I blogged recently about the yard Christmas Meal?

I’ve just found this grainy photo of my dessert – the lemon and lime cheesecake:

Enjoy!

And (again)…

I hope that you enjoy your Christmas and New Year celebrations.

But more importantly – I hope you all have a brilliant 2008!

B.

We have spent today in the company of Damien, the Child Who Bears the Number of the Beast.

I know that even the most delusional person in the known universe couldn’t fit my name in to the top 55-billion ‘Best Parent’ list.

But, because I observe places, people and behaviours, I see how people act – and react – to how they’re being treated.

I see how people put themselves down, I see how people promote themselves to higher pecking orders in the pack.

I see control being given away – and taken.

And I see these things occurring when they shouldn’t.

Today I have seen:

* A child refusing to eat his main meal, instead demanding ice cream. This is not unusual.
* A child refusing to sit at the table while everyone else ate. This is not unusual.
* A child (obviously over tired) refusing to go to bed, instead crying until being permitted to sit on – and fall asleep on – a favoured adult’s lap. This is not unusual.
* A child having screaming tantrums so many times that I’ve lost count. This is not unusual.

And that’s just today.

This child rules the family.

He controls his parents, he controls his grandparents.

He is two and a half years old and he is in charge.

The consistency of his behaviour underlines the abject lack of consistency of discipline with which the family unit treats him.

The Lovely S will feel offended when she reads this, but she needn’t.

I’m not criticising her.

Or her parents.

I’m criticising Damien, the World’s Most Evil and Manipulative Child.

B.

Tonight at 21.00, as a special treat, ITV is broadcasting a modern adaptation of what some may call a classic novel.

Vanity Fair.

And I’m in it.

Well…

When I say I’m in it I mean I was an extra in the film.

I exchanged greetings with Rhys Ifans, watched Jim Broadbent work his way in a most studious manner through the Daily Telegraph – when he wasn’t stomping around in character and shouting “Sirrah” in a manner calculated to startle the horses.

Romola Garai – I saw her too.

And Reese Witherspoon.

But I did much, much, much, much standing around on set in makeup and costume.

Jim Broadbent had the right idea with the Daily Telegraph.

He also had his own chair.

We had to stand around and lean on things.

A bit like I’m doing in the new header of this blog.

Yep, that’s me.

Anyway…

I don’t know if my scenes even made it off the cutting room floor.

I don’t know because I haven’t actually seen the film yet.

I might not even see it tonight, it’s competing with Top Gear Night which may or may not be followed by me grabbing that bottle off the worktop and taking a couple of sandwiches to bed and having an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (or Buffy, the Slayer of Vampyres – as Andrew – one of the cast – would put it).

Woo!

Rock’n'roll!

B.

**updated – 19/12/2007 @ 19.22**

**updated – 20/12/2007 @ 05.27**

**updated – 20/12/2007 @ 09.29**

**updated – 20/12/2007 @ 19.20**

**updated – 21/12/2007 @ 23.35**

**updated – 22/12/2007 @ 08.00**

**updated – 23/12/2007 @ 08.35**

Easyjet!

I have booked return flights for 2 people from Bristol Airport to Malaga – outward on 27th December, returning on 31st December.

Total cost: £517.03p

I’ve just checked my bank statement and it shows that yesterday Easjet took two amounts of £517.03p. That’s two amounts of, folks.

This means that my current account is over £1,000 lower than it was two days ago.

Action 1:
I rang my bank – bear in mind it’s not their fault, but I know I can speak to my bank, whereas trying to get past Easyjet’s website to speak to a human is next to impossible – and discussed it with them.

The nice man on the other end said they’d categorise it as a Visa dispute. What I need to do is pop in to a local branch, fill in a form and they’ll try to get the money back in 5-7 working days.

Today’s date is?

Yep, 19th December.

Number of working days (i.e. spending days) left between now and Christmas?

Three.

So no chance of getting my money back before Christmas then.

Action 2:
I found a telephone number for Easyjet – oh yes, they do exist!

I dialled and listened to a long, long menu (being charged 10p per minute while I listned) and eventually got through to a person.

She (Paulina) checked her systems and told me that the money had been taken just once.

I told her that her systems were wrong.

I told her that I was looking at an on-line bank statement and it clearly showed two payments of £517.03p were removed by Easyjet from my account yesterday.

Paulina went away, spoke with someone and came back to me.

This time she said that it wasn’t a double payment. Apparently now it’s a shadow payment which was caused by the difficulty I had with the on-line booking/payments system on the Easyjet website.

I told her that was not the case. I had no difficulty, everything processed smoothly. I reiterated that there was nothing ‘shadow’ about this transaction – £517.03p too much had been taken from my account.

She went away, conversed with someone then returned.

What I have to do, she said, is wait five working days during which time Easyjet would look in to the problem, see if they could resolve it and action a refund back to my account.

I said something like: Five working days? Are you mad?

Paulina went away, spoke to someone else then came back again.

She was going to escalate my problem to her manager who would try to get things resolved today.

Easyjet would contact me this afternoon by phone or email to tell me how things were going.

So why is it that I feel so unconvinced?

Could my feeling that Easyjet are far less interested in giving money back than they are in taking it be related to the way Paulina tried to fob me off with a couple of completely made up excuses right at the start?

Yep, I guess so.

So here I sit, £517.03p taken – in an unauthorised manner – by Easyjet, waiting for a phone call and/or email to tell me the money is back in my account as of right now.

Except I don’t believe that phone call or email is going to happen.

___________________________________________

**updated – 19/12/2007 @ 19.22**

Well it’s almost half past seven and do you know how many emails and/or phone calls I’ve received from Easyjet – as per Paulina’s promise that someone would get back to me today?

Yep, that’s right.

None.

But I’m not counting chickens before they’re hatchlings.

There’s still just over four and a half hours to go, right?

___________________________________________

**updated – 20/12/2007 @ 05.27**

Well, the day that Paulina from Easyjet promised someone would contact me in, to let me know how their unauthorised extraction of money from my account (isn’t that theft?) is going to be reimbursed has passed.

And the tally is:

Emails from Easyjet: Nil

Phone calls from Easyjet: Nil

So that’s great customer service then, isn’t it?

I’ve had to transfer money from our joint savings account to cover the unauthorised transaction. If I hadn’t already moved money from my individual savings account to pay for Beech’s cremation, Easyjet’s unauthorised transaction would have bounced – and I would probably have had to pay bank charges!

Great.

We shall see what the day brings (but why do I suspect it will bring very little satisfaction and no money from Easyjet?).

Oh… And a huge amount of thanks to the good wishes from all my friends on this issue. I appreciate it.

___________________________________________

**updated – 20/12/2007 @ 09.29**

Still no response from Easyjet – and no reimbursement to my bank account.

So I’ve emailed the Easyjet press office with this message:

Good Morning,

Please see this link (http://brennigjones.com/blog/?p=330) for important information about Easyjet.

Please note that this press release is being circulated – with an appropriate Christmas theme – to the major broad coverage news outlets.

Easyjet have the usual right of reply.

___________________________________________

***updated – 20/12/2007 @ 19.20**

Development 1:
I sent an email to the Daily Mirror. It said:

My Christmas savings have been taken by Easyjet.

Last week I booked and paid for a return flight to Spain so I could go and visit my daughter for the holiday.

The total cost was £517.

Yesterday I checked my bank account and noticed that Easyjet have taken two lots of £517 – £1,034 from my bank account!!

If I hadn’t moved my savings to my current account I would have gone deep in to the red and would have ended up having to pay bank charges.

I spoke to Easyjet yesterday and they lied to me a couple of times.

First of all they said they’d only taken one payment.
Then they said that there were two transactions but one was ‘a shadow payment’ because my bank hadn’t been sure how much it should pay.
Then they said that the money did seem to have been taken twice but that was because I had experienced a problem while I was paying. Except I had no problem paying!

Then they said they’d process a refund but that would taken five working days. Obviously this gives me my money back – but allowing for hitches, probably not until January 2008!

I told them this was not good enough.

Then they said they’d sort it out immediately and someone would ring or email me back by the end of the day – yesterday.

I’m still waiting.

So now I’m down £517 in my current account and I don’t know when I’m going to get the money back. I also don’t know if I can afford to make the trip to Spain because effectively over £500 of my savings has vanished!

Can you help please?

Soon after that this blog was read by Easyjet.

At 11.15 I received an email from them that said:

Dear Mr Jones,

I am sorry to read that you had problems to make a booking on our website and that you have not heard from our customer service.

Can you send me your booking reference, so I can have a look for you?

Thanks,

A result!

I responded with the information required.

At 11.35 they came back to me with:

I have received your email, I will investigate it and I get back to you as soon as I can.

Thanks,

At 11.45 Easyjet very kindly came back again with:

Basically, as my colleague explained to you over the phone, there is shadow payment in this case.

In order to resolve the problem, I will need to send a fax to your bank to confirm that only one payment has been through.

Can you confirm your bank contact details with its fax number, the name to the person I can address it to, and your credit card details used for the booking and the amount debited twice?

Regards,

Hmmm… Have you noticed a couple of things missing? Still no admission of guilt or culpability, still no apology? I replied with the details they asked for and added a couple of thoughts:

“I’ll pass over the distinction that what you choose to call a shadow payment is still £517 out of my current account at an expensive time of the year.

I’ll also resist the temptation to ask the valid question whether you carry sufficient funds in your current account to cover every payment you make twice.”

Easyjet’s response at 12.50 was:

Thanks for your reply.

easyJet has charged you only once 517.03 pounds. There is only one record for one payment. Your bank has put your money on hold.

We could send a fax to your bank to confirm that only one payment has been taken from easyJet.

I thought you mentioned that you contact your bank before contacting customer service.

Regards,

OK, now I’m starting to get really annoyed.

* Why would my bank deduct one amount and put my money on hold?
* Why would my bank describe – on my bank statement – the ‘on hold’ (i.e. deducted) amount as a payment to Easyjet?
* Why would Easyjet think that my bank might put ‘on hold’ (i.e. deduct) the same amount as their payment?

At 13.15 Easyjet came back to me:

Hello,

Our revenue accountancy just had a look at your booking and confirmed that they have contacted your bank and they cannot seen that any payment has been taken from this card i.e. £517.03 as per booking reference. Can you please send us a copy of your bank statement?

Regards,

At 13.30 different things happened…

The Daily Mirror emailed me and asked for a phone number so they could chat about my situation with Easyjet.

I obliged.

Meanwhile, at 13.49 Easyjet asked to see a copy of my bank statement – the one that contained the lines describing Easyjet taking the same payment twice.

Again, I obliged. I added a little more information that I’d gleaned from a subsequent phone call with my bank:

As requested – file attached as a spreadsheet.

I have just spoken to my bank again and they are saying what the statement says – that the money has been taken twice.

I told them that you said that Nationwide have put the money on hold and they almost laughed down the phone at me, then said that wasn’t possible.

At 14.45 Easyjet confirmed:

Hi, I have passed on your email to our revenue accountancy department. I will get back to you when I get a reply. Regards,

So here I am.

Still out of pocket.

And as you can see by the bank statement – still owed £517 of my own money by Easyjet.

And no closer to a resolution.

Except there’s a glimmer of light on the horizon in the shape of the Financial Services Authority.

Included in my Easyjet purchase is an insurance product – travel insurance – and the law regulating the sale and fraudulent sale of financial products is governed by the Financial Services Authority.

And guess what…?

Easyjet have committed a Financial Services fraud and are now open to prosecution under the Financial Services Act.

I wonder if Easyjet will be able to resolve this tomorrow and have the missing money back in my account before the close of business (which is when the Financial watchdogs get involved) and have the good graced to apologise for stealing my money, attempting to perpetrate a fraud under the Financial Services Act and for using up too much of my precious work-time – time that I’m going to have to make up tomorrow by getting in ridiculously early?

Stay tuned…

___________________________________________

**updated – 21/12/2007 @ 23.35**

Now here’s a peculiar thing.

The number of people who have googled ‘shadow payment’ in the last 24 hours = 9.

The number of people who have googled ‘shadow payment easyjet’ in the last 24 hours = 48.

These instances are surely beyond mere coincidence?

There must be something going on here.

My bank – once again – say that there’s no such thing as a shadow payment where the bank isolates the money from the current account but shows the money as being transacted to any other party.

I believe my bank – but I have written to the banking ombudsman for confirmation.

If – stress the word – the banking ombudsman confirms this then logic means one of two things have occurred:

1. Easyjet press office have lied to me (and perhaps other departments in Easyjet may have lied to other members of the public) about this (potentially) mythical ‘shadow payment’, or

2. Easyjet’s press office (and perhaps other departments in Easyjet) were passing on the ‘shadow payment’ story in good faith but only because Easyjet’s finance department have cocked things up, and have concocted the whole ‘shadow payment’ story to cover up their mistake.

Hmmm…

What I would like to happen is for every person who has been a victim of ‘shadow payments’ to Easyjet (or any other organisation for that matter) to get in touch with me.

You can do that either by leaving a comment here – as one other person already has done – or if you follow the ‘Contact’ link at the top of the page you’ll find my email address.

Please, if you area a ‘shadow payment’ victim, drop me a line.

Thanks.

___________________________________________

**updated – 22/12/2007 @ 08.00**

Yesterday – Friday 21/12/2007 at 15.27 – I was sent an email by Easjet (who I am only just resisting the temptation to call Sleasyjet):

Dear Brenning (sic),

I have received an email from our revenue accountancy confirming that they have spoken to your bank and they will be refunding you for the duplicated charge.

We would like to apologise for inconvenience caused and please allow 5 working days for this transaction to be processed.

Thrilled to bits that money was coming back but annoyed it would take so long I responded:

Hi (name),

Admittedly, this would cost Easyjet a relatively small fee – but I feel sure that any compassionate organisation would not begrudge such a small outlay to put right a problem that removed money from my account three days ago!

My contact at Easyjet swiftly replied:

Hi Brennig,

I am very sorry for the inconvenience caused – as explained before easyJet does not hold your money. Your money is on hold.

I had asked you before a fax number in order to send a fax to your bank to confirm that we have charged you only once.

Your bank will refund you.

Regards,

So that’s a fairly consistent set of responses from Easyjet – they didn’t take the money twice, my bank had taken it.

Except my bank says they didn’t take the money – and that Easyjet had.

___________________________________________

**updated – 23/12/2007 @ 08.35**

I checked my bank account this morning and was overjoyed to see the following entry:

So there we are!

I have my money back.

Yay!

But what’s that description against the credit – and how does that description tie up to my bank supposedly having my money?

Hmmm…

We shall see what the Banking Ombudsman says about Easyjet’s story.

B.