Yesterday was an admin day and certainly a frustrating day, I have been trying to renew our BW boat Licence since last month but couldn’t do so on line because we did not have our renewal number (“see your renewal reminder notification” which we had not received!!!) I tried ringing the BW Licensing Team but each time got a recorded message saying they “were very busy, try again later” after which I was cut off. I emailed them asking for our renewal number and an automated reply said “The office is very busy and all items have to be prioritised; we will do our best to respond to your e-mail promptly.” I had still not received a reply but on collecting our mail there was a letter from BW, ah this must be our reminder… no but it was a Application Form with a covering letter dated 20 Jan 2011 and postmarked 26 Jan 2011 !!!!
The form was duly completed following their instruction…
“Where tick boxes are used, place a cross in the selected box” Classic!
I don’t know if I still qualify for prompt payment discount as the old licence has now expired, but they still won’t answer the phone so I have applied it anyway & sent off my cheque. You couldn’t make it up, could you!
Amongst the mail there was unwelcome letter from Gloucester County Council telling me I was to be fined for driving in a bus lane, yes well it was true, but it was for crossing Llanthony Bridge, Gloucester early on a Sunday morning to deliver batteries to our son’s boat when it was on Llanthony Visitor Moorings right next to the bridge, what else was I supposed to do? Hey Ho, another email sent to officialdom!
Last night there were two programmes on BBC4 which we wanted to see, Julia Bradbury’s canal walk of the K & A and The Golden Age of Canals following it, guess which channel we were unable to get last night! Hurray for iPlayer is what I say, we did see the K & A programme even if I did use all my internet allowance and The Golden Age of Canals is repeated on Thursday.