| lesley153
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People do seem to stick to their half of any town or city, the half they're used to. I wonder why a river becomes a psychological barrier, over which thou shalt not cross.
The street he's in is very pretty. Late Victorian big terraced houses, with sash windows and internal honey-coloured wooden shutters, stained glass in the front doors and front windows, tiled porches, mosaic paths, that sort of thing. People who know about this sort of thing call it a Des Res area, and the council call it a conservation area. A mile up the road and it becomes very scruffy indeed.
The lamp is a "bodyclock" - it's built into a clock, it fades gradually at bedtime, and comes on slowly at waking-up time. I haven't woken up in the dark for perhaps as long as fifteen years. It occurs to me now that I could probably have walked into Boots and just taken one off the shelves. They may not have much choice, but one of them might have been all right, and I would have it safe with me now, not careering around the countryside. *sigh* |
Reply #3301. Sep 03 11, 6:10 PM
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| lesley153
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My goodness yes - *exactly* like that one!
The previous one was such an old design, I can't even find pictures of it any more, but I shall keep looking. It was a light bulb inside a frosted glass sphere, atop a triangular analogue clock. |
Reply #3303. Sep 03 11, 7:06 PM
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MotherGoose
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"People do seem to stick to their half of any town or city, the half they're used to. I wonder why a river becomes a psychological barrier, over which thou shalt not cross."
Lesley, I have lived all over the world and I have never seen this phenomenon so pronounced as it is here in my home town of Perth, Western Australia. Perth is located on the Swan River and everything is divided into north of the river and south of the river. Many people who live on one side will not venture over to the other side. Whichever side you live on, the other side is often jokingly referred to as "the dark side" (a la Star Wars). There is an intense snobbery about which side you live on, irrespective of which side it is. Many businesses will have at least two branches, no prizes for guessing that one is north and one is south of the river. Crossing the river here is sometimes akin to crossing the Rubicon. Having said that, I'm a south-of-the-river girl myself and never lived north, although I have ventured over there to work (LOL).
Reply #3304. Sep 03 11, 7:32 PM
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daymare 
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We had that problem in a place where we once lived..only it was a street which was the division.
Our landlord, and many of the residents, looked down on the people who lived across the street. We suspected it was jealousy as the HOA across the street took care of the property and the HOA on our side did nothing.
No wonder we moved...the whole thing was a pain.
Reply #3305. Sep 03 11, 7:41 PM
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| C30
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My wife always says that you know when you have climbed a rung of the social ladder in Liverpool, when you move from Bootle to Crosby!
Then you have "Nawf Lunnon" and "Sarf Lunnon" divide created by the Thames.........and never the twain shall meet (except to have a punch-up).
I had a girlfriend who lived in Berkshire (south of the Thames) who considered me a "Northerner" coming from East Anglia!
Finally in England, we have our version of the "Mason-Dixon Line"............"Watford Gap"!
Reply #3306. Sep 04 11, 3:27 PM
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| lesley153
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Londoners generally ignore the other bit. They may occasionally describe it as transpontine, but they won’t really take any notice of it. The other side may as well not exist.
My house is in a little run of semis. The houses across the road are detached and huge, with front gardens as big as a tennis court. The people across the road are the ones with the money - the people opposite spent a quarter of a million pounds building a double garage in the Tudor style. They’re the ones who operate a “home watch” scheme, and they’re the ones who get burgled.
I had a husband who was born in Manchester, and spent half his life in Lancashire. He took pleasure in mocking my “flat Southern vowels,” and I retaliated by saying he came from Bootle. Perhaps this was a worse insult than I realised?
And then we migrated north to Bedford. Hardly anyone I knew had heard of Bedford (“Is it anything to do with Brentford?” “Bradford?” “Oh yes, I know Bedford - I’ve got friends in Luton”) so I just told them it was north of Watford, and that was all they needed or indeed wanted to know. I still find myself telling people that Bedford and Luton are different places. “But Luton’s in Bedford, isn’t it?” No, it’s a 40-minute drive from Bedford. It is in BedfordSHIRE, as is Bedford. Bedford is the county town of BedfordSHIRE. “Oooh yes! I never realised!”
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Reply #3307. Sep 04 11, 5:18 PM
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daymare
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The next time someone asks where I am from, I will state "Earth". It will be so much easier.
Across our mini street is our garage so I would consider our car to be a good neighbor.
The majority of people who live in our complex are very nice people. They more than make up for the ones who are not nice, or neighborly.
Reply #3308. Sep 05 11, 1:47 PM
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bloodandsand
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Has it arrived yet, Lesley?
Reply #3309. Sep 05 11, 2:11 PM
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| lesley153
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My lamp has become weary of travelling, and arrived at its new home this afternoon.
Chapter 1
I bought my first "bodyclock" in November 1996. It felt like a lot of money but it worked out at £4 a year, which is peanuts.
Jonathan bought his in October 2009, while he was working for the college student union, in Prince Consort Road, near the Albert Hall, and it made sense for him to have it delivered to his work.
Chapter 2
I bought the new one online over the Bank Holiday weekend, and my order was processed when the office opened up again on the Tuesday. They sent an email thanking me for my order, which would be sent to me at my address, and they gave me a link and a parcel reference so I could track it. So far, so good.
It left Cambridge on Tuesday morning and went straight to Stoke-on-Trent. I rang the company and asked what it was doing there, and I got the answer: "Whoops. Start again." I continued to track it as it wandered the countryside, south from Stoke to NW London, and thence to Wellingborough, out to Brogborough and back to Wellingborough again. I also watched the consignee's identity change from a number to Jonathan's name. Eventually, at around one o'clock Saturday morning, it settled down in Wellingborough for the weekend.
This morning, it was still in Wellingborough, but its status had changed to "out for delivery" a little before 8am. I rang FedEx and asked if there was a chance I'd get it today, because it had been travelling for nearly a week. "Let's have a look," the FedEx agent said. Interesting. She unearthed a little detour that didn't appear on the tracking - to Jonathan in Prince Consort Road. Impressive. It was on its way to me now for an afternoon delivery, she said. It’ll be about three o'clock.
Chapter 3
Then I rang the company and said I'd rung FedEx, and the lamp was coming this way, but could she please tell me why my order had become my son's? She explained that an online order will be scanned and matched to a name and email address. He had obviously used my email address to place his order. No, he hadn’t, because he made his order All By Himself, nothing to do with me, with his own email address, and he can't have done it on my email address because the email address I used didn't exist in 2009. Or 2010. Or at the beginning of 2011. She repeated her theory and I repeated that he couldn’t have used an email address that didn’t exist.
So she tried again. When Jonathan placed his order, he did it online, and the company software decided that mine was the main account, and the London address was a "special delivery address" subsidiary. His billing address is still here, which may be why the company decided to lump us together.
But why did that happen? And she tried to change direction, by suggesting that we concentrate on the most important matter: where is my lamp. So I reminded her that I had already rung FedEx and had been given an approximate delivery time. I know where the lamp is: I want to know why my order had got in such a mess.
So she tried to explain. When the order is sent to be picked, the staff are supposed to "eyeball" the paperwork to check that the delivery and billing addresses are the same. I reminded her that my order had been acknowledged by email addressed to me, and that the two addresses had been the same... Human error - to eyeball or not to eyeball - doesn't explain why my name has been replaced by my son's. It could have been a surprise gift for him. It wouldn't have been much of a surprise if he'd got it first. Human error, she said, and she Apologised For The Inconvenience.
Chapter 4
FedEx came at ten to three. The invoice had been folded behind a see-through window, so that my name and address appeared through it. The invoice was fine. So why had someone decided to put a giant sticky label on the parcel, with Jonathan’s name on?
Chapter 5
The lamp was perfectly packed, and it looks good. Underneath the lamp base, there’s a sticky label that says max 60 watts normal bulbs, max 42watts halogen. Start reading the instruction booklet.
“Maximum 42W halogen bulb/40W candle bulb.” That’s a good start. Back to the phone.
The lamp says 60 and the booklet says 40.
“It doesn’t matter because it comes with a 42W halogen bulb.”
Well yes it does matter, because one says 60 and one says 40, so one of them is wrong.
“No, it doesn’t matter, because a 42W halogen bulb is perfectly safe.”
Start again. Simplify the question.
I have some 60W candle bulbs that I bought for the old lamp. Are they safe to use on the new lamp?
“Yes!”
Apparently rules and regulations change with time, and I’ve been sent a 2009 booklet. Is that an acceptable explanation? I don’t think so. Can I face adding to the debate? No. Losing will to live? Nearly!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I also said that the parcel had arrived exactly when FedEx said it would but my son’s name had been plastered all over the package.
She’d done some investigating after my phone call this morning, she said. FedEx said it was the company’s fault and the company said it was FedEx’s fault.
I don’t understand that at all. If you give a delivery service a parcel and a name and address to deliver to, how would the delivery service decide to change the details? Did I tell her that didn’t wash? Nah. Waste of time. But she did, once again, Apologise For The Inconvenience.
Chapter 6
Make mental note to think twice before ordering from these people again.
Going to plug my new lamp in now. :)
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Reply #3310. Sep 05 11, 3:33 PM
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| C30
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Have you mended all the fuses Lesley? Well you close by stating that you were about to plug "the lamp" in, and given trials and tribulations experienced in getting the darn thing to start with, I would not be surprised if it blows every fuse in the house!
At least you got "apologies for inconvenience caused", which is a sight more than I got from Tesco of late, whom, reading between the lines, said, "We couldn't give a fig about any inconvenience caused".
However, I am sure you will be delighted to learn, that your story of "Travels of the Lamp" would rival even Aladdin and if nothing else has kept a few FT users entertained for days!
I suppose you could try rubbing it, you might get a Genie pop up and grant you three wishes, especially as the whole performance sounds like a Pantomime!
"Oh no it doesn't.............Oh yes it does" Lol
Reply #3311. Sep 05 11, 3:51 PM
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| Oatmeal25
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Fiat lux, eh? :)
Reply #3313. Sep 05 11, 5:19 PM
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| lesley153
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Ray, I haven't plugged the lamp in yet, and now I'm almost frightened to!
If I have entertained, I am happy. Oh yes I am.
It's rather nice never waking up in the dark (unless you're an insomniac, in which case you probably wake up in the dark all the time). Have a look at Northern Light Technologies in Canada; they've got a few of these things. Shame about the prices. The £60 I paid in 1996 was silly, but doesn't feel so bad when you divide by 15. Oh yes it does! |
Reply #3314. Sep 05 11, 5:23 PM
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| lesley153
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| Yes - let there be a bright car. :) |
Reply #3315. Sep 05 11, 5:24 PM
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| Oatmeal25
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Oh my, the blogs are spilling over into each other! ;)
Sic semper blogganis.
Reply #3316. Sep 05 11, 5:34 PM
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daymare
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If you spill in my blog, please wipe it up.
Lesley, I am looking forward to your impression of your new lamp. After all the heck to get it, it has better be one amazing lamp.
Reply #3317. Sep 05 11, 6:21 PM
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| lesley153
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I am looking forward to using it. It seems much cleverer than the last one. I shall report back. I may also caress it gently to see if a genie pops out, and then I shall report back to Ray as well.
The literature says that it will retain the time and settings if it loses power for a short time, and that's all I've seen so far. It doesn't seem to have a battery secreted anywhere - it must be magic.
Isn't this fun - Latin! What polyglots we are! |
Reply #3318. Sep 05 11, 6:32 PM
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daymare
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My polyglots appear to be broken.
If a genie appears, remember one wish should be for more wishes (or additional genii).
Reply #3319. Sep 05 11, 6:44 PM
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| Oatmeal25
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"If you spill in my blog, please wipe it up." I would never sully a person's blog! I'm a neatnik (and old, to have come up with that compound).
(RMG has an entertaining Latin-based blog.)
Lesley, turn on your love light. (Whatever that means.)
Reply #3320. Sep 05 11, 6:54 PM
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