This
morning was characterised by the usual obstructionism that flowers around the
delivery agents employed by Amazon in this area. I am tempted to name and shame but I fear
that their service will be even worse if I try and express my feelings about
this triple initialled organization.
In the past
we have discovered “We called but you were out,” notes left in the letterbox
before the time written down which says when the delivery was attempted! One box containing a camera was simply thrown
over the wall, and the number of times that the delivery has apparently been
attempted while we were unheeding and uncaring in the house while this delivery
silently went on is almost beyond belief – which I think is exactly true.
Today was a
variation on a theme as I was responding to an email from Amazon telling me
that the usual deliver had been attempted but not reply was forthcoming. This benighted organization now doesn’t even
bother to leave a note (which is one step worse than the truly awful Spanish
Postal Service which at least leaves a note when they have no intention
whatsoever of delivering a parcel) so you have to guess that the parcel may
have arrived and take appropriate measure to attempt to get your goods.
Even armed
with a copy of the reference number I was unable to get my stuff this
morning. A charming gentleman eventually
found something with my name on it in the computer and informed me sadly that
the message I had got merely meant that my stuff was in a central storage area
somewhere and alas, not in Castelldefels.
Returning
to my house I took the precaution of printing out the whole of the email to
take back to the gentleman who then (how astonishing!) found a substantial packet
containing all my discs with my full name and address written on the packet
twice.
Sometime,
you simply want to cry.
However
that is not the therapy that I utilize and so I went to Gava and bought some CD
cases so that the new acquisitions could be safely, and more importantly from
Toni’s point of view, tidily put away.
The Third Floor has become a sort of counter-intuitive Piranesi-like three
dimensional jigsaw puzzle as I buy new stuff (a propensity for which I should
be given at least an OBE for services to rampant consumerism) and then have to
find new and ingenious ways of making it all fit so that Toni doesn’t notice
that there is more of what he hates around the place.
I am
benefiting from record companies revisiting their ancient (i.e. from the 1970s
and related decades) recordings and issuing them in incredible value box
sets. I have already had cause to
mention the appallingly named “Brilliant” records which produce box sets of
complete recordings of major composers for “must buy” prices. My stocks of Beethoven, Mozart and various
other tune masters has benefited immeasurably from their efforts!
I now have
a separate album of Shostakovich and have enough music new discs to keep me
happy for some time as I drive along the roads of Catalonia trailing music of
extraordinary quality behind me. One
advantage of the unloading at bargain price of old-ish recordings is that you
get legendary recordings that at one time were the stars of the catalogue now
consigned to in-car listening. Many of these
recordings I have in other versions but the names of the artists make them well
worth listening to again. And again. I suppose there will come an end to this
largesse, but while the box sets are being issued I am going to be a sucker for
them.
Our lunch was
supposed to be in the value-for-money place that we have discovered in St. Boi
but that was not how it worked out.
Toni, for nefarious reasons, wanted to call in to the supermarket and
there he met his family doing some last minute shopping for the festive season.
With our
augmented numbers we sallied forth to our restaurant of choice in the area and
to our combined horror we found it closed.
The commercial sense behind it being closed during one of the busiest
weekends of the year was lost on us all, but we decamped in a very bad mood to
the restaurant at the end of the block which we had never tried and found a
place which almost instantly took our affections by storm.
The value
for money of the new place is almost comical with a three course meal with
salad bar starter, wine, casera and coffee coming in at around €10! The tapas alternative at €8.90 consisted of a
few plates of offerings which almost defeated staunch members of the
family! A place to be remembered and
patronized. “Las Salinas” will become
something of a feature of our visits to the benighted smear which is St Boi as
long as the quality and quantity are kept up!
Tomorrow is
the start of the Festive Season Proper when the first of the Trial by Ordeal
Meals will take place. The first will be
Toni’s Mum and then on succeeding days The Meal will move to other habitations (in
much the same way as her late majesty Queen Elizabeth I journeyed from subject
to subject reducing them to penury as she went) as other members of the family
take turns in stuffing the maximum amount of food possible into the human body!
I will
return to Castelldefels for a “time-out” period on Sunday evening, only
returning to the gastronomic fray on Monday evening. This is to allow me to collect a part of
Toni’s sister’s present which is a book which has been ordered on Amazon and
which, after pestering in more than one language has been promised on Christmas
Eve. I am still a little sceptical, but
I have the wrapping paper ready and, as presents are traditionally given the
day before Christmas in Catalonia, I could be prepared by the time I am
subjected to the next meal!
The Pauls
(sober) called this afternoon after they called (drunk) last night. Last night (drunk) they agreed to come to
Catalonia some time after Christmas for a seasonal visit, while today (sober)
they are a little more circumspect!
However, I am hoping that extravagant councils will prevail, overdrafts
will be ignored and we will be able to celebrate the New Year in Style!
The OU is
nagging at the edges of my conscience. I
have to keep telling myself that now the group Wiki is complete the second and
more important part of the tutor marked assignment is still waiting for me to
put finger to key. This is the
reflective part of the task and one which carries more marks than the group effort.
This is an interesting
task as there is both too much to say and of that, much of it should probably
not be said. This is certainly one of
those times when, as Waugh has one of his characters say about the methodology
of schoolteachers I think it is, “discretion must be tempered with
deceit!” I must look again more closely
at the exact wording of the task in the assignment booklet because strict
adherence to guidelines is one of the way to get yourself through the gentle
mine field that is studying with the OU!
Although I
have to tell my new iMac to think in English every time I use it, I am more
than pleased with the general functioning of everything. The wireless keyboard is a delight after the
rough opposition of the last one I bought and the elegant gleaming touchpad is
an aesthetic dream.
The basic
problem with owning an iMac is everything else.
Such a piece of design perfection makes all other possessions in the
vicinity look at best tawdry and at worst like a tramp’s vest. I remember one of those screamingly funny
cartoons from ancient editions of Punch when an Aesthetic Couple are admiring a
teapot and wondering if they can (or was it “dare”?) live up to it! iMacs make you think in something like the
same way!
The Pauls
have just phoned and said that the bargain price of three hundred quid that it
would have cost them to come over is now just a fond memory and that the one
way ticket to Barcelona is now just under two hundred pounds each – without
taking into consideration the fact that they have to get back again! Ah well, they will just have to look further
afield and consider Reus and Girona. We
will wait and see.
One result
of the patience which is a key virtue in shopping in Lidl is that my watch
collection is now on public display in the caskets that I have been waiting for
in that shop. In Lidl more than anywhere
else the “buy it as soon as you see it” dictum is an essential one. I now have just enough display space for the
Grand Collection but no room for the Lesser Collections. I only bought three, six section display
cases and today there were none left, so it is back to the old waiting game to
get the extra cases that I need. And
yes, I am well aware that it is not strictly normal to have that number of wristwatches.
Toni still
hasn’t noticed that I am wearing a new watch – the Citizen eco perpetual. The thinking behind this purchase is that, by
the very nature of the watch, I will have to keep it on my wrist for quite some
time to find out whether the odd months do change in the way that they are
suppose to without my having to spend untold ages trying to get the
day/date/time back to something approaching equality with Big Ben. I also think that it is an elegant and
understated watch with just enough fussiness in the dial to stop it being
mundane. And I like the strap too:
assertive without being vulgar. So the
outlay on this watch (bearing in mind that it was some seventy pounds cheaper
on the Internet than in W H Samuel) is really to make me curb my spending on
watches in general. Makes sense to me –
but there again, I also believe in the concept of the Transferability of Random
Benefits, which means that a part of a gain in one area can be transferred to
another completely unrelated area to make that area into a bargain too. So, buying a classical disk at half price
means that, by using TRB, a high price opera seat can be financially modified
by the gain from the disc to become only breathtakingly expensive rather than
poleaxingly expensive. It’s not much by
way of a contribution to International Economics, but it makes life just that
little bit more bearable!
My
retirement is now complete. I have
knocked out the sand from my sandals in the School on the Hill and I have taken
a valedictionary meal of tapas and Cava with the local British School. However, I feel that my final bow is going to
be somewhat delayed, as the Head of Secondary intimated that January need not
necessarily be a teaching-free month for me!
I am not sure whether to be sadden or elated by the suggestion!
At the
moment, however, with only the unfinished TMA to worry me, I can look forward
to relatively stress-free Christmas.
And what,
when you come to think about it, a hostage to fate that last sentence is!
