RIP OFF BRITAIN

Dear Blog,

              Not so long ago ‘Rip Off Britain’ was the big media talking point. Feature programmes on the wireless and the television jumped on the band wagon with dire warnings and examples of people being ripped of left, right, centre, up and down. Why the fuss? I asked myself at the time. Hasn’t it always been thus?? Have things changed or is it still going on??

 A true story Blog…

Well, imagine the situation … a young lady packs her camper van to go away for a few days break last Friday. It was raining. It was raining hard. So what I hear you ask Blog; nice and dry and warm and comfortable in the van. Destination, two and a bit hours from leaving home … no problems on the roads, not even the motorways. THEN. Just over an hour into her journey, the darkness had descended and the rain continued to pour, her windscreen wipers on the camper van stopped. Driving was not possible in the rain with all the spray kicked up by other motorists so it was a case of quickly looking for a stopping place and a telephone call to the breakdown service for their assistance as onward travel in the prevailing conditions was not a feasible option. The breakdown service just scraped inside the promised one hour arrival time. Much investigation. Much twiddling of this and that. The consensus was that the wiper motor had packed up and a new one would be required … and no new wiper motor would be available until the garages opened up on Saturday morning. What to do?? Sit out the night at the side of the road in the rain?? Get a tow to a nearby campsite if there was one nearby?? A nonsensical clause in the breakdown cover meant that no two attendances to the same vehicle on successive days for the same problem was permitted!! It would not have been safe for the young lady to spend the night at the side of the road so a sensible decision to cut her loses and accept a tow back home from the breakdown service was arrived at. The attendance sheet gave the diagnosis as a burnt out windscreen motor which she could give to the garage when she went in for a repair. A young lady with a camper van wanting her windscreen wipers fixed …  you could almost imagine the quids growing in the eyes of the garage man!!! Many quids for old rope. RipOffBritain.

No repair could be arranged until the Monday morning and when she delivered the van to the garage in Warwick, she was advised to leave it as the garage was fully booked with service jobs and it would have to be fitted in when and if possible .. more quids for the garage man, after all we are in Rip Off Britain, aren’t we Blog?? She left the diagnosis sheet from the breakdown service with the garage man but he said he would take a look and do the tests for himself ..oh yer, many more quids there then??

The young lady got a call about 4pm to say that the van had been repaired and was ready to be collected when convenient. AND THE BILL??? Prepare yourself Blog and have a hankie ready to dry the tears!!! Total cost was a whopping £8!!! Blog I kid you not. The garage man had found a loose wire and fixed it. How about that for service? How about that when he could so easily have ripped the young lady off and there would have been nothing she could have done about it but to have paid up. Eight quids. Now use the hankie to dry your eyes, no doubt watering from disbelief Blog. Eight quids. That man should be mentioned in dispatches. A small garage on an industrial estate next to the railway in Warwick. Unbelievable. Restores your faith in the human race, what Blog? E I G H T Q U I D S .

                                    Colin

Clock change

So Blog, thirty minutes ago we have all gone through the stupid twice yearly ritual of having to get up in the middle of the night to alter all the clocks in the house. Not only does this cause arguments as to who gets up to do the altering, but then there is the frustration of trying not to waken the rest of the household while you creep downstairs to change the time on the clocks, television, cooker etc etc etc.. And how do you explain to the cockerel that he should shut his beak for an extra hour and not disturb all the chickens? And then, the worse part. How to creep back upstairs quietly and not disturb everyone again? Do you turn on the lights and waken those still asleep while you creep around the bedrooms altering the upstairs clocks? Or do you fumble in the dark or simply use a torch? Decisions, Decisions. It is so embarrassing when you have to pop into the bedroom of any visitors to alter the time of their bedside timepieces … and if they are wearing a watch?? What to do then?? I’ll tell you what Blog, that nice Mr Cameroon has a lot to answer for at this time of year! Time of year, geddit Blog?

Enough

I am off back to bed, afterall, things could be worse….. If I worked the night shift, would I get an extra hour’s pay, would it be classed as over time at over time rate? And which rate? Emergency call out, double time extra, weekend bonus plus?

Good night  .. or should that be Good Morning?? So confusing.

                                                 Yawn.

Abingdon Marathon 2014 The Result

Photograph:

Photo Quiz:-    The result of a marathon ....

Dear Blog,

                Sunday was the Abingdon Marathon. I last ran many, many years ago  .. and I only trudged round then to get a ‘best for age time’ for the London Marathon qualifier.

Sunday was bright and fine and unusually warm ... left home about 6:30 am for the 9:00 start. Field of about 2000 runners. Very well marshalled [Coventry Half Marathon could learn from this], lots of water and drinks stations with the people manning them knowing what to do about handing to runners etc [Coventry Half Marathon could learn from this], course was very runner friendly [Coventry Half Marathon could learn from this], marshals very encouraging [Coventry Half Marathon could learn from this], plenty of  local support with sports clubs offering refreshments to spectators along the way [Coventry Half Marathon could learn from this] (Bacon and sausage batch £1:50, coffee or tea 50p – bargains), a lap course so spectators could follow the race [Coventry Half Marathon could learn from this], plenty of first aid, static and roving ambulances [Coventry Half Marathon could learn from this], frequent pick up buses for drop outs [Coventry Half Marathon could learn from this], efficient t-shirt / goody bag distribution at the end with free hot drinks very near the finish line [Coventry Half Marathon could learn from this], knowledgeable finish commentary in front of the stadium [Coventry Half Marathon could learn from this].

Having driven down, got around the marathon and driven back, I was knackerated and fell asleep on the sofa as soon as i got back home. An exhausting day for me. I dread to think what state I would have been in if I had trudged round .... just watching my younger daughter run was tiring enough!!

                        Colin

Just walk on by, Try round the corner. The houses there are finer, The houses there are bigger than mine ...

Photograph Quiz.

Photo no 243:- This is the pub which replaced the pub which used to be the pub which was used for lots of Saturday races by Coventry Godiva Harriers and has now been knocked down and replaced by a building which is used as what??? And where is it Blog??

Dear Blog,

               I know you are worldly wise and have a great many contacts, friends and acquaintances so just spread the word amongst them all that I would like to thank my weekend burglar for not making a mess, not trashing the place like my last illegal visitor and for being so quiet that the family was not disturbed from their slumbers – it was appreciated. Also convey my hope that he / she / they made good use of the proceeds of their intrusion by having a good time at my expense. No problem.

                                         Colin

Discus discussion.

Photograph Quiz.

Photo no 242:- This picture is of the British All Comers record holder (set in 1951) for the Discus. Blog, I could ask you his name but you would never guess. Never. So… the name of the Discus thrower is Tosi !!! Blog I kid you not. Just check the old record books if you do not believe me.

Dear Blog,

                The students are back at University. Coventry is awash with them. Coventry University students crowd out the city centre, Warwick University students crowd out the highways and byways of Canley. Yes Blog, Warwick University is not in Warwick but is built in Coventry!!! It is a long story as to why; I must have told you before Blog.

             On Thursday evening, I went out for a trudge from the Godiva Harriers clubhouse which is built next to the Coventry Track on the Westwood Campus of Warwick University. Because it is getting dark so early I would be returning to the changing rooms in the gloom, I wore my luminous jacket so the traffic could see me and take careful aim. I know I am going slow, very slow BUT … I gets to the first set of traffic lights and a couple of students grab me by the arms and asked if I wanted Help to get across the road!!! I thought I was being mugged at first but then realised that the students were just being polite. I think they must have been foreign because they did not do any of the things I suggested they should, it was in the heat of the moment on my part.

           I did get my revenge on the student population later in my trudge when I overtook a large group of freshers out for a training run. Passed them all I did, Blog I kid you not. O.K. so they were going in the opposite direction, but I still passed them.  … and it wasn’t on the other side of the road like what Sam Heriton did.

                                                    Colin

History for all ... especially those interested in athletics.

Photograph Quiz.

Photo no 241:- Of all these lads, which one’s mother wrote to David Bedford sympathising with him when he was being hung out to dry by the British media????

Dear Blog,

               As you may know Blog, I have spent eons researching ‘The History of Coventry Godiva Harriers and other club in the city during the last 140 years’. Various individual topics have meant specific investigation because of their peculiar contribution to the club’s existence and development. Focusing not on athletic records, which tend to be a great big yawn and a definite turn off for all but the most avid athletic anorak, I have focused on the threads which have been instrumental to the Godiva Harriers survival and their improvement in performance. The main strands of influences can be listed as educational, industrial, philanthropic, political [a small and large ‘P’], social and geographical. Particular specific events have also had an impact, not least the two World Wars.

              Having done considerable work on the recruitment of Godiva’s and other city club’s athletes, tracing their exploits and fates I fully expected that there would be some academic and some not so academic works available for inspection…….. Blog, I kid you not when I say I despair of the standard of work that appears to have been done. A couple of Ph.D. submissions which I would have demanded a rewrite had I been in charge. Other less academic tracts are an embarrassment! I really do wonder where this dumbing down will end … the history programmes I have witness on the television set have an academic rating less than zero.

            So what to do with my tomb??? Most interviewees cannot understand why a book on the local athletic scene is not forthcoming from me. It is difficult to explain to them that such a project is economically not viabile. Any such book would have a very limited appeal. So short of self-publication, it is a non-starter unless a rich fairy with more money than sense pops round for a coffee!!

         On the other hand, for some time I have also been writing of the exploits of a club which had a very short existence ..and the metamorphosed club fared no better. It is the personal connection which is the appeal! So I might try a pamphlet …. Watch this space, but don’t hold your breath, Blog!!

        And on the third hand …. They say you wait a long time for a bus to come and then two come along together. Well, for no apparent reason, in the last two weeks, four descendants of Godiva Harriers have contacted me with some very interesting items …. My poor wife now has to manage without me while I go into a period of purdah to record all the nice new information!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                    Colin

Take a pill ...

Photograph Quiz.

Photo no 240:- In about a month, I am going to give an amusing talk to these school kids. Which school did they attend? What will my stunning talk be about? How old are these kids now???

Dear Blog,

    I see that the health service is introducing a nasal spray for the winter annual flu jab rather than a jab from a needle which many dread. From experience of the polio jab etc. and having two less than happy children who had injections whilst at school, I know how relieved many parents will be at the prospect of a quick sniff rather than a pointy prick. Well do I remember the elder one kicking and screaming and almost getting hysterical when it was polio time at school … and she was only getting a sugar lump!!! Blog, I kid you not.

  Saturday was depression time. It was the National four stage road relay (women) and the six stage relay (men). Why I hear you ask Blog, is this a depressing experience? Firstly … Godiva men were invincible when I were a lad but now the club’s performance is not too hot; this implies no criticism of the lads that run but it definitely is of the ones who can’t be arsed to turn out in the red and gold vest or those who believe they are God’s answer to road running and travel miles and miles to run some race which they have no doubt been told by one of the athletic magazines is unmissable … and please remember to bring many quids to enter. They are guaranteed a not-to-be-missed rubbishy goody bag as their part of the deal! As for those club athletes who prefer a Park Run in the morning rather than a run in the afternoon for their club …. Sad??? I say no more as I only have a limited number of asterisks available for you Blog.

  But there is worse Blog. Worse. Much worse, would I lie to you Blog. The oldies are all there in Sutton Park to view the runners not running as fast as they did many eons ago – well at least most are. Some have fallen off the end of the allotted span. Others look ancient. Why do you think I never look in a mirror Blog? Months of guessing where I need to shave, months of wondering if the parting in my bald spot is straight, months of speculating if my false teeth still fit, months of hoping that I still fit into my kit and look smart are all to no avail when I see an ancient colleague hobbling towards me with a toothy grin. I cannot look as bad as he does …. Surely????

                  Colin