Making Slow Progress

I will soon be giving an account of my September reading and it will not take long. There will also be a format change. As I have written before I generally keep many books in my reading pile, usually around twelve as this number seems manageable. In September that number hovered around 14-15. 

I won't be photographing the 12 this month or ever again. That is because I feel a little bit disappointed that some books seem never to make their way out of the pile. There is one in there that I bought with last year's birthday book tokens and another that I found in a Sue Ryder in Fakenham when I was on my last visit to the Norfolk branch of the family. Those two are still on the go.

You see where I'm going with this?  The books that languish in my reading pile say far more about me than I want known.

Anyway, here are some of the books that I've been reading this past while. 

Eleven of them are yet to be finished and there is one other that I got fed up with and decided not to finish. Clue: It's on the top row.

One From Ten Years Ago

 

Fun With Cardboard

I have had the pleasure this weekend of the company of all my children and grandchildren. Yes folks - my darling Katkin and her husband are visiting from Norfolk. It's a whole year since I've seen her. Tomorrow we are going to Derry. There will be photographs. Until then here are some photographs.

What ever can Aunt Katy be pushing in the NinkyNonk? Dave knows but Jess doesn't.

My word! Small children. Someone needs to inform the Health and Safety Executive without delay.

Martha might be deciding that all she wants for Christmas this year is a selection of large cardboard boxes. Who needs toys?

Birthday

 

When a young woman hits her mid-teens (getting so old) she may not be just as excited about birthday cake as she once was. But that's OK. When you've experienced many birthdays, you can be excused for feeling a certain ennui.

Anyway - Happy Birthday, Martha!

PS - those photos were taken two days before her birthday. Today's the day.

An Update

Well, I was wrong. According to those Amazon people in the USA I did accidentally set up a Prime account in America. Set it up, never used it even once and then got billed for almost four years.

I spent more than three hours on Friday with Amazon.com and had interactions with four different reps.

The first seemed very pleasant (I wondered if she was AI) and after I explained myself she offered to cancel my sum and give me one month's refund which I declined.

The second advisor was also pleasant and again I wondered if he was AI. He did ask why it had taken me so long to complain. I continued to make my case and was offered two month's refund which I declined.

The third advisor spent around 10 minutes perusing the previous exchanges and passed me on to number four. 

There was quite a bit of waiting time for me during these exchanges which I spent cleaning my bookshelves.

Number 4 advisor, Priya (I visualised Leonard's girlfriend in The Big Bang Theory seemed like a human being. Priya was able to tell me when the American Prime had been applied for. I wish now I'd asked what was streamed because that would have given me some clue as to whether I had ordered it or someone else. Eventually, she offered me a year's refund. I was tempted. I answered as follows,

I got the two years which would have covered the period that Amazon sneakily got my new card details without my knowledge. I did wonder if I should have held out for the full amount but was exhausted with all the bargaining and bookcase cleaning and it was getting late. I also worried that I might have ended up with nothing. As the saying goes, half a loaf is better than no bread.

The next day 24 separate payment of $14.99 went pinging into my bank account. Music to my ears.

And as promised, Amazon business practices suck but the customer service part is pretty good.

Prime Idiocy

A confession. It took three attempts and many years for me to get to grips with online banking. During that time I was without paper statements so was never completely sure how my balance stood. I’d check it a few times a month at the ATM and sometimes I’d print out a mini statement.

So, when I finally got online with the bank I was jolly pleased and the first thing I did was check on my regular outgoings, you know, phone bill, charity subs, streaming services – that kind of thing. And the first thing I noticed was that I appeared to be paying for Amazon Prime twice!

A regular payment of £8.99 was going out on the 25^th of the month and a few days ahead of that another sum was also coming out of my account. It was never the exact amount, varied from month to month – always around £12. I couldn’t figure it out so contacted Amazon.

And it turned out they had no record of it. I was advised to contact my bank. The next day was Tuesday and I was too busy doing cakes and family meals. The day after that I was in to the bank to find out what’s what. And what it was – was that the bank closed on Wednesdays.

First thing today I was in there and met a very helpful young woman who looked into the situation. I was paying for two subscriptions but the extra one, the one I couldn’t understand was in the USA! Apparently Amazon Prime costs $14.99 in the States which is why my sterling withdrawals fluctuated from month to month.

I was relieved that whatever had happened wasn’t my fault, that I hadn’t accidentally set up an extra account in America. But still,  a shame not to have noticed it before now as it turns out I’ve been paying for another person’s Prime Video subscription for nearly four years.

As I said to the woman in the bank, God I hope it wasn’t a Trump supporter!

She agreed that it would be sickening if it was.

Now I’ve got to see if Amazon in the UK can sort this out for me. I am not sure if I’ll ever recover the money but I suppose I’ll have to try and claim something from somebody. Apparently, according to an article I read today, I should also contact the FBI although that seems pretty intense. Also overkill. And probably pointless.

Birthday Cake

It's sad if the birthday girl has to make her own cake, so I asked Bert to do it. All I had to do was choose the recipe, buy the ingredients, set everything out for him and go take a Duolingo lesson or three. 

I forgot to photograph the cake but the Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days book has a very nice picture which is almost exactly how Bert's cake turned out. 

It was yummy although the baker himself said,

Too much frosting and far too sweet.

Cleo had no complaints. Again no photograph, but if I had grabbed my camera when I caught her on the table snarfing my cake I could have captioned it, 

Le chien est sur la table et elle mange mon gateau !

Thats about my level in French. It might be a while before I can tackle that French translation of Apeirogon.

Birthday Present

As a birthday present to myself I finally got around to sorting out online banking - hopefully third time lucky. I was ever so thrilled about it, especially as the lovely person in Halifax wished me a Happy Birthday when she was checking my details. 

I was somewhat less thrilled when I got home, logged on and found that I am paying a monthly sub to Amazon Prime and another one! I cannot get to the bottom of it despite contacting Amazon Customer Service which is probably a bot.

After getting online banking I thought  I'd never have to go into the actual bank ever again but now it looks like I'll be back on Wednesday to see if they can enlighten me about the double Prime payment. 

Another thing about online banking is that there seem to be mysterious outlets where I spend shed loads of money. One was THEFIRTRE where, in recent weeks,  I appear to have splashed out £106 and some pence. I'm pretty certain I wasn't out the door on that particular day so it was concerning. My banking app can tell me what kind of outlet THEFIRTRE was and, according to it, this is misc food store, conv store, market, speciality store and vending machines and as Google Maps would have it, situated under the railway bridge on the Galgorm Road in Ballymena. I imagined some vast emporium selling everything from speciality cheeses to vintage delpht and I definitely couldn't remember being anywhere like that, never mind spending over a hundred quid in it.

Eventually, it dawned upon me. Google Maps had it wrong. It wasn't Ballymena - it was a tiny petrol station on the road to Kilrea and I'd given Bert my card to fill the Jeep. Of course, he'd bought sweets and biscuits as well, so little wonder he'd spent so much.

This is why, from now on, I must start using this blog as an aide memoire/diary even if that means it becomes a little tedious for you, Dear Reader. I may even have to give it a new title. Nelly's Garden may become Nelly's Decline. 

Anyway, here's a photograph to cheer us all up.

Did I mention it's my birthday?

The Twelve, September 2024

 

While my actual reading slowed down in August, my book purchasing surged. I may have bought three times more books than those I finished reading.

The three books read were, in order of the pleasure given,

Let The Great World Spin by Colum McCann. I found my copy in the charity bookshelves in Tesco. I enjoyed it immensely, so much so that on the morning I read the last page I went straight online and ordered Apeirogon from World of Books. It arrived on Saturday. Sadly it was a French translation and despite me spending far too many hours on Duolingo* my French isn't up to it. World of Books is sorting it out for me. I will get another copy and get to keep the French one. 

My second favourite was As You Were by Elaine Feeney. While I was reading it I felt less than impressed, yet I've been thinking about it ever since. One to read again.

The third book which I read quickly was Gordon by Edith Templeton. The novel was referred to in a recent Guardian article and I had an unread copy on my shelves. Shall we say it was interesting?  I shall be recommending the Colum McCann to all my family and friends who enjoy reading but not the Templeton. 

Here's hoping for more reading this month. The Percival Everett is yet to be started and I'm really looking forward to it. 

 *I joined just over a month ago. It keeps me off the wine.