Burgers
Met up with Kim (she/her) and ended up going to Lidl. I like Lidl in small doses. The bakery bit is fab, the deli selection is good and the bargain stuff in the middle aisles is usually interesting. Today it was Kim that wanted stuff, I just bought a few bits & pieces including some minced beef so that I could make burgers for tonight’s meal.
My daughter, Claire, loves them,
“Best burger I’ve ever had, etc”.
Go here for my recipe.
Smart Meters – A Rant
I got an innocuous email from British Gas today, it just randomly popped into my inbox. It informed me that …
We’ll be sending one of our Smart Energy Experts to upgrade your meter. Once it’s up and running, you’ll be able to see how much energy you’re using in pounds and pence.
And you won’t have to worry about sending us your meter readings any more – your smart meter will send them to us automatically.
Our Smart Energy Expert will visit you on 12th October 2023 between 13:00 and 17:00
They will arrive during your appointment slot. It can take up to two hours to fit your meter.
Fair enough you probably think. However, I haven’t requested a smart meter, in fact I have told them on many occasions that I do not want a smart meter. No legal obligation exists whereby they can force one on me or anyone else. I don’t doubt that smart meters are wonderful things for some people, but I don’t believe there is any personal benefit to be gained by having one and I don’t particularly like having strangers in my house drilling holes etc. especially when I haven’t requested it. Plus there is the fact that they are simply telling me (not asking) that they are arriving on a day and time of their choosing and will be in my house for three hours, I assume that I would be without gas or electricity for at least some of that time, that might not exactly be convenient.
Besides the fact that this is just a bullying tactic to meet their own obligations to the government, there are two things that REALLY annoy me. One is that the email doesn’t have any small print to say I don’t actually have to have a smart meter and there is f**k all the can do about it. The other is this…
If you need to cancel or reschedule your appointment please give us at least 24 hours notice or you may be charged a £30 cancellation fee if you’re not at home when our engineer arrives.
They threaten to charge me £30 for not cancelling an appointment that I haven’t made for a service I don’t want. Plus they expect me to take an afternoon off work to let them do it. Admittedly I’m retired but they don’t know that.
This is just the tip of the griping iceberg as far as British Gas and me are concerned.
British Gas are quite simply crap.
It’s true of all the industries that used to be owned by the country that were privatised by Maggie Thatcher. Gas, Electric, Telephones, Water, Railways, all gone down the pan as far as service is concerned at massively inflated prices to pay the dividends.