a note for first-timers

If it's your first time here and you're new to blogs, the first post you'll see is the most recent so that's where you should be ending, rather than starting. Otherwise, carry on...

Please, feel free to comment - you know you want to.

treelessness

Still no tree. Why is it that everywhere stops selling Christmas Trees and Christmas Decorations more than a week before Christmas? In fact, they didn't have any last week either... so that's almost two weeks before Christmas. *sigh*

Failure to get a tree was the least of my concerns today, however. I had a bad experience. A very bad experience. In HMV.

You know when you're in a shop and you see someone at the counter trying to buy something, only to find that their card is being rejected? And you know how you typically think, "I bet they've reached their credit limit!"? Well, I was the person at the counter today. The thing is, I hadn't reached my credit limit at all - it wasn't even a credit card. And there's money in my account.

It turns out that Barclays cancelled my card because they were sending me a new one. According to Barclays, they sent it on the eighteenth of November. Of course, they didn't tell me they were sending me a new card (it's apparently this chip and pin business) and they then didn't tell me that they were having trouble delivering it, nor did they tell me that the other one was being cancelled. No, I had to call them today (after the HMV incident) and find all that out for myself. <A whole array of profanities deleted>

Anyway, they said they'd send me a new one and it should be with me by Friday. It should be with me by Friday. Yes, that's Christmas Eve. I should be able to actually do some Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve. Isn't that nice of them?

I accepted that initially but I shall be calling at nine tomorrow morning and giving them an ultimatum. I have things to buy and those things can't wait until Friday - they won't then get to their destinations in time. I'm going to be an awkward customer for the first time (unassisted) in my life. I was talked through it about a month ago when Expedia screwed up... and this time it's Barclays' turn to squirm. Oh yes, they'll squirm. And I'll have a card to buy things with by the time I post here again tomorrow. Or the next day... or whenever they get me my card. No, it really will be tomorrow. Just you watch.

In better news:

Kerminotter came second in his race and Runandhide won his one. I elected to put the V.I.P. code in for Kerminotter though and now he's looking like a fwog on a mission. I even got to chat to him! How cool is that?

How can you possibly resist THIS?