Spencers

Cookham in Bucks is the birthplace of Sir Stanley Spencer and the home of the Spencer Gallery located in the chapel that he used to be taken to as a child. It's a charming little village on the banks of the Thames, a couple of miles away from Bourne End where our head office is based.

Last night I stayed at Spencers Hotel (shown here in 1897 when it was the White Hart during a flood), at the far end of Cookham High Street, and rather nice it was too. It's a a very friendly pub that serves some of the best food in the locality and the menus can be seen chalked up round the bar and along the various beams. There's a good variety, although not a huge selection for vegetarians it has to be said. I had a Peppered Goat's Cheese and Spinach Timbale which was a very reasonable £9.50 and left me too full to be tempted by any of the traditional puddings on offer. They also do a huge number of sizzling steaks if that is what floats your culinary boat, and other more exotic dishes and some interesting oddities like Cumberland Bangers with Garlic Mash and Russian Roulette Jalapeno peppers in breadcrumbs and cream cheese (you get six, and one of them is *hot*). There wasn't a huge selection of beer, but the Greene King IPA was well kept and very drinkable.

The accommodation is clean and comfortable, but for £55 for bed and breakfast you can't really complain. They'd had a problem with the loo in my room, and Les behind the bar was despatched to B&Q where he failed to find the necessary attachment for the ballcock. I had enough water for one flush in the morning, but even given that minor hassle I'd much rather stay there than at some anonymous Holiday Inn or Travelodge somewhere.

Recommended if you ever in the vicinity and in need of somewhere to eat or sleep within reach of the M4 or M40. Booking in advance on 01628 522793 is advisable though.

4000 words down on the NaNoWriMo, and the plot is starting to come together. I'm not entirely sure where the story is heading, and it might run out of steam. I'll put the links to it in a couple of days if I keep the momentum going on it.

Going South

Up at a quarter to six this morning, and amazingly Alicia didn't need much more prompting than her usual cup of coffee which gave us plenty of time to get her to the bus stop for the early school bus, and for me to turn around and join the slow flowing queue of traffic on the M1. I feel a little like Reggie Perrin continually complaining about the improbable hold ups on his journey to work, but this morning there was a four mile queue at Chesterfield due to an accident on the other side of the road, and then a rather nasty smash between a lorry and a car transporter caused a snarl up somewhere around junction 18.

I eventually got to Bourne End for just past eleven, but even so I managed to cover every issue that I needed to discuss with the programmer working on the timesheets project before lunch time. I suppose he might need some more input from me before he goes on holiday for two weeks tomorrow, but really there was no need for the mad panic to get here when we could have had a meeting in Birmingham instead.

I can get some more work done on the query tools for my copy of the database this afternoon and tomorrow, and then hopefully sneak off relatively early whilst it is still light.

Busy

Blogging for the next month is likely to be perfunctory for the following reasons :

- NaNoWriMo 2000 words down, 48000 to go, I'll link to it when I've got a bit more done. Scribble.
- Rapier training, I've just got back from Monday night training, and we've got another six hour workshop with Professor Mark Donelly (swoon!) on Saturday. I think I'm going to send off for a 37" practical rapier. Swash.
- Work. I'm working away from home one night a week for the next three weeks. Bourne End tomorrow, and a stupidly early start. Sob.
- Halo 2. Just over a week to go. Fret.
- Grand Theft Auto. I've been playing Vice City again and now own my very own lap dancing club. I may never leave the house again. Retro.

In other news, I've been asked to take part in a documentary on Happiness, just when the clocks go back and I'm miserable for the lack of sunlight. What are the chances of that happening, eh?

Aaaargh!!!!

Dark Skies

Well, it's a little after five o'clock and it's pitch black outside. Give me back my sunshine!

Melancholy

It's been a strange week, all told. I feel an air of melancholy, in the sense of pensive sadness. The death of John Peel, and the subsequent tributes that I have read and listened too, have set in perspective the other travails of the week. The mist outside has persisted for the whole day, and I know that the clocks going back tonight will through my body clock out of kilter for several months until the days start to lengthen again.

I feel like I've not done much with my week off, other than potter round the house and play video games, but I think that on the whole I have needed the time to catch up on my sleep and allow myself time to read and reflect a little. I've got an idea and a framework for my NaNoWriMo contribution but I don't know if I can stretch it to 50,000 words, or indeed if I can write a convincing female character.

We shall, as I am famously wont to say, see ...

Hanging on the telephone

I thought I'd give the CSA a ring this afternoon to see what was happening with the case. Only problem was, I didn't know the number for the CSA Belfast office. I googled for it and after trawling through a couple of pages found a likely looking number, so I rang it.

"Your call is being held in a queue - please hold on"

Oh, great. I drummed my fingers for a while and read some newsgroups, and after ten minutes I got through to a real person.

"Can I take your reference number, please?"

I told him that I didn't have a reference number, and could I please speak to Simon who called me the other day. Presumably there is only one Simon working for the CSA, or he is well known in CSA call center circles, as he hadn't told me his surname.

"I can't do that I'm afraid. Can I take your National Insurance number and I'll try to look up your case with that"

I duly told him, and after a while the case came up on the screen as being closed.

"Are you sure?" I asked him, resisting the temptation to add "Cos it'll be a right kerfuffle if you've got the wrong one". Of course, after a little detective work it turns out that he was looking at the original case on the old system which was closed six years ago.

"You've come through to the wrong department", he told me, "Where did you get this number from - you want the CS2 new client team".

"I didn't realize there was a difference - it was the only number I could find. Can't you transfer me?"

You could almost hear him sigh and mouth the words "Computer says no". How could a sophisticated, high tech call center be expected to transfer a call from one department to another? I'd be asking for the moon on a stick next.

So, I had another number to call.

This one sounded a bit different. The automated voice wasn't Irish for a start and there was a convoluted sequence of button presses including star keys, hashes, button 1 to confirm, my NI number, date of birth, shoe size and inside leg measurement to prove my identity.

Hopefully, I thought, they'll get me through to the right place straight away. No such luck.

"You are being held in a queue"

Seventeen minutes later, and I get through to somebody who looks up my case, and obviously has got the original details again and is about to direct me back to the first department.

"No, it's a new case - I just wanted to check if you had heard anything from the Sheffield benefit office yet? I really don't want to have to fill in a Maintenance Enquiry Form when I don't have to seeing as I am not a Non Resident Parent"

He says that I need to ring the local benefit office again to see what they are doing, so I do so.

Only a four minute wait this time (hurrah for the Sheffield benefit office!) and the nice young man agrees to phone the CSA to let them know that there shouldn't be a case, and let me know in writing when he has done so.

Why do I get the sinking feeling that this is going to be an ongoing saga?

I ache therefore I am

Following the stresses of yesterday, predictably enough I didn't sleep very well and woke up with my shoulder aching once more. Some ibuprofens and a cod liver oil tablet eased it somewhat, but it's been a strange day. Still, there's not a whole lot I can do about it, other than to try and destress in the usual sort of ways. I worked off a bit of anger by re-visiting Vice City, hijacking a tank and flattening a military convoy. That'll teach them to tell me to step away from the vehicle ...

Titan

I don't know about you, but the latest pictures of Titan from Cassini-Huygens are quite simply the most astonishing that I have ever seen. It is awe iinspiring to see the surface of a completely alien world through the mists that have kept it hidden until now.