“‘Angel’ falls off a lorry
Málaga dog found in Somerset is being nursed back to health

By Dave Jamieson

It’s not everyday that a dog falls off the back of a lorry, but that is just what is thought to have happened in the case of a Spanish dog found in the south-west of England. Since Angel was found straying in Somerset, the local county council’s Animal Health and Welfare Team have been working with local organisations to help get the dog back to full health.

Angel, a pedigree boxer, was handed in to the RSPCA after being found in a car park in Taunton. She was found to have a microchip linking her to an address in Málaga, more than 1,300 miles (2,100 km) away from Somerset. She was registered in Spain 10 years ago but attempts to contact her previous owner, named on the microchip as Diane Levy, have proved unsuccessful and it is suspected that the dog entered the UK illegally on the back of a lorry.

The county council has a duty to make sure any animals suspected of coming into Somerset in breach of current UK rabies laws are either placed in quarantine, deported or destroyed, but luckily for Angel, the South Western Boxer Club volunteered to take responsibility for her and support her six months in quarantine.

Club secretary Glenda Tibbots, said, “When she came to us she was very thin and had black patches on her side with no hair there. She has had an operation to remove a big lump on her eye and is putting on weight. She is an absolutely super dog and needs a one-to-one home, so at the end of the six months we will try to find a new home for her.”

If anyone recognises Angel or can shed light on how she travelled from Málaga to Somerset, please contact Glenda on 0044 1278 785 071. “

We became involved in this HD TV saga as a direct result of the sudden death of my washer-dryer after fifteen years of reliability, when after several unsuccessful attempts to get a suitable replacement at the right price elsewhere,  we eventually went into Currys in Llansamlet in Swansea.

We quickly found exactly the right product, paid for it and arranged for its’ delivery a couple of days later at a time to suit our timetable….. Sorted!

On the way out, we noticed a huge amount of publicity for a special offer to install HD and multi-room Sky TV.  We made enquiries and were told that we could use this offer to upgrade the Sky TV we currently have …… no purchase necessary (though, to be fair we had just spent £450 on a new washing machine, had we not?)… So for a one off payment of £29, and then an extra £20 per month we would have Sky HD in the lounge and a further sky box in a second room.

Several text calls and Emails from Sky later, we had a phone call from somebody several thousands of miles to the east of Offa’s Dyke, a gentleman called ‘Mo’ with a very pronounced accent.

From this difficult conversation,  it emerged that the amazing offer we had received from our local store was a complete mix up.  We could not in fact have the multi-room offer.  That only comes when you purchase an HD-ready TV from the store at the time of booking (contrary to the information from the salesman).  Also we would have to pay,  not £29, but £79 …. though the monthly increase would be halved to £9.75…. and this would just be for the straightforward HD and Sky in one room only…..

Confused?… We certainly were, with each of us taking turns to try to translate what the man in the call centre was trying to get across.  He said that installation would be very simple, and would not need any wiring, just a card, as we already have a sky aerial.  He tried to persuade us, though, to switch our telephone to Sky, but we refused as we are happy with our current service provider, and we made it clear that we were not prepared to link the TV to the telephone….(we don’t use TV shopping channels)

We agreed to go ahead, anyway with the straightforward installation of the basic HD in one room only, and a date was fixed for Monday, between 9 am  and 1 pm.  We mentioned the fact that there is congestion at certain times as we live opposite a school, and that access to the satellite dish is restricted by a canopy, but we were assured that this would not be a problem.

We later received a letter confirming the installation arrangements, just as we were going away for the weekend preceeding ‘Installation Monday’.

On the Sunday evening we received an Email telling us that the installation team would telephone us at 9 am on the Monday to tell us exactly when they would arrive.

At 9.30 am on that fateful Monday (without the telephone warning) two service engineers arrived (knowing nothing about the Email contact).

Firstly, they inspected the satelite dish…. (cue: sucking in of breath)…. “The problem here is that it will have to be totally rewired.  The wire is the wrong colour.  The original Sky Engineer installed it wrongly, you see.  And you are missing a bit at the end of it that we’ll have to add.  It will all have to be rewired,  and that will be difficult as it is all sealed in”

So we went inside to look at the set …..” Yes, that’s OK, but where is the telephone socket?”

Now then!  Here’s the rub …. despite having told the far-away-gentleman that we were not prepared to link to the telephone…it appears that, if we do not connect the TV to the telephone, Sky will charge us a further £25 in order NOT to do so!

They will also then charge us an additional £60 per month until the full cost of the HD box has been covered.

To connect the telephone would involve having two sets of wires running into the room, over the door and across the room.  In addition, the far-away-gentleman had arranged for “Multi-room Sky” (which we had distinctly said we did not want), which would mean a further two sets of wires coming into the house and over and around several other doors and into another room too! Not a word of all this had ever been mentioned before.

Then they turned their attention to the fact that our TV stands on top of a purpose built reproduction cabinet  (cue: another sharp intake of breath)…. “The trouble there, is the lack of ventilation …. the HD box gets very hot… you would have to sit with the cabinet doors open whenever you want to watch HD TV., or sit the box outside somewhere on a table, (complete with wires)

At this point, we both said unanimously:  “Sorry, boys… forget it!”

However… there is another twist to this farce…Had we allowed them to go ahead with their planned task, they would not have been able to set it up on the same day, anyway, as in their wisdom, the company had not sent us the necessary HD card and we would have been without any TV at all until such time as they managed to get their act together!

The engineers were very understanding, considering that they had spent at least 30 minutes of their time, for which Sky would not reimburse them, and they agreed that we were right to cancel in view of the long term disruption and damage that the installation would  inevitably have caused.

The engineer used our land line to contact the firm and my husband then cancelled the contract and asked for a full refund within 24 hours. (Needless to say,even 48 hours later there was no sign of the refund, and when we telephoned the Sky number we had been given, they knew nothing about it)

At the same time our visitor made a call on his mobile phone to report “Yet another cancellation as a result of poor advice and information, both from the initial salesman and the call centre”.

Why does Sky do this?  Perhaps they hope that people will be afraid to stop the work when the full reality of the lack of truthful information is realised?  Yet these two apparently honest engineers told us there are dozens of people deciding, as we did, that it is all just not worth the hassle.

But then, Sky were quick enough to take the £79 from our account .  On a grand scale over the whole country, that probably could amount to an enormous sum of money available to them for trading, despite its’ having to be returned later…they at least have access to cashflow for fourteen days in the interim.

So….Beware!  If you should decide to take up one of these offers, make sure you read the small print and don’t get too excited about HD until you actually talk to someone who knows what is what.

Some ten years ago, my husband and I each invested in ISAs in The Abbey National in Swansea.

In 2004, we were notified that they were about to mature.  Unfortunately, we were living on our boat in Spain at that time (this fact in itself is rather ironic since Abbey was later taken over by Banco Santander with whom we had a bank account).

We telephoned Abbey in Swansea and asked for the money to be paid into our accounts at HSBC, giving full details of the sort codes and account numbers.

We were informed that we were not allowed to have the money (OUR MONEY) paid into another bank, or sent to us as a cheque, and it would have to be re-invested in Abbey.

After many frustrating phone calls (mobile phone calls from abroad do not come cheap) we were informed that both sets of money had been re-invested in ISAs with the Abbey and would have to remain in there for five years !

Well…..here we are five years on.

We are back in Wales.  The ISAs  both matured on January 23rd this year.  On January 5th we both tried by telephone to arrange for the money to be transferred into our accounts at HSBC.

No Chance!!

At this point, had this been an Ingmar Bergman film,  a cloud would have moved across the face of a full moon to symbolise trouble ahead…..The letter they sent us gave the wrong telephone number!

When we eventually found the correct number,  we were told we had to make an appointment with the ‘Investments Manager’ in order to decide which kind of Abbey account the money should go into.   Nothing would persuade the person at the end of the phone that this was OUR money and we wished to do with it whatever we pleased, and did not want to waste an hour speaking to their representative when we did not wish to re-invest in their bank.

We were told we would each have to make a personal visit to the bank taking with us a recent bank statement from the bank into which we were trying to transfer the money (OUR money, remember).

They could not understand my reluctance to show them a statement from HSBC.  Frankly, it is in my opinion, none of their damned business!

However, as a way of getting our money, we reluctantly decided to play their silly games and duly went into Swansea, paid  a hefty fee to park the car, went into the Abbey office where we were told that we could not proceed without an appointment…yes, you’ve guessed it…. with their Investments Manager.

Eventually we were allowed to see the Branch Manager who completed two forms himself for us,  in order to release our money as soon as the ISAs matured a fortnight later. Again, we were told that they were not allowed to write two cheques for us, and the money could only be transferred to another bank after we had allowed them to photocopy our current bank statements from HSBC.

Well, the maturity happenned and we waited….and waited….and waited.

Many telephone calls later, it was established that both amounts of money would be paid into their allotted accounts by close of business on February 9th.  To our surprise (?)  it was not.  A further telephone call established that both transfers would be made the following day.

Two days later, on February 11th, I checked my statement and found that my money had been released at long last.  Stupidly however, I  assumed that both transfers would have been made, since they were for identical amounts and had been supervised personally by the manager at the same time.

But No!!

Today, twenty seven days after the ISA matured, my husband still has not received his money, despite many telephone calls to many different members of staff.  We have been passed from pillar to post incessantly.

On occasions we have repeatedly been told that we had “pressed the wrong option button, this is 3, you should have pressed 4″…. but like the original wrong telephone number, there wasn’t one!  (After several tries somebody clearly rectified this and the right list of options appeared.)

We shall be putting in a demand for compensation for all the phone calls (thank goodness for itemised telephone bills) when (if) we ever do receive payment.

Finally today, we spoke with the ‘PEP & ISA Customer Relations Manager’ in Glasgow and were told that ‘the computer had made a mistake’.

Yes, in true Little Britain fashion, “Comptuter Says No…..”

But… and this is where I blew my top….. she told us that all is to be resolved this afternoon

“….. somebody is going to physically walk down the road today to the Glasgow branch of the HSBC and pay in a cheque”….. made out to my husband’s account at HSBC.

So why could that not have happened five years and twenty seven days ago?

I wonder how many other people are trying to rescue their own money from the clutches of Abbey Santander?

This is necessary because it is a busy road passing a primary school.   However, we don’t think it will make a lot of difference to the standard of driving in the area unless it is combined with a permanent speed camera.

In today’s unusual conditions, though, not even a camera could deter some of the local “children” who came out to play in the snow!

If you click the picture, it might grow a little!

At a time when just about everyone in the country is fitting energy saving bulbs in their homes, tightening their belts against the economic crunch we are facing, having cavity wall insulation installed, closing curtains at dusk, turning down the thermostat and wearing extra clothes, switching off pilot lights and lights that are not strictly necessary……

At a time when many Local Councils are switching off street lights completely to conserve energy and cut costs…

Penyrheol Primary School is lighting up the sky again.

It is, however, not quite so wasteful as it used to be.  Only eight of the massive globes were lit this week.  They also went off by 2100 hours which is a slight improvement.

On other occasions, there have been 18 globes lit from before dusk until after 9.00pm  Indeed, on more than one occasion they have all been left on all night.

Now…. at this time of the year, all the children are safely home before dusk.

These lights are presumably there to help adults to find their way into the school to attend keep fit classes and the like.  There was a grand total of 5 cars in the car park on Thursday

There are already adequate street lights in Penyrhoel.

They are on all night.

There are already adequate security lights around the school.

Why cannot the people attending the school in the evenings, each purchase a small torch …possibly like the one I myself use when I take my dog for a walk at night?

Presumably it is our Council Tax which is used to pay for this blatant extravagance?

Grrrrrrrrrrr !

Following the shameful behaviour of the people in Ashstead in Surrey last year, today there has emerged a disgraceful episode in Woking, again in Surrey, where an injured soldier, sent home for treatment to a war wound, was kicked out of a hotel which he had booked into earlier in the day.

He had gone to Woking to visit another injured soldier, a friend of his. He booked into the Metro Hotel earlier, made his visit, and when he returned to his room to sleep at about 10pm he was asked for ID. He showed his military ID and was told that soldiers were unwelcome there!

He was promptly kicked out and had to spend an uncomfortable night in his car.

Personally, as the daughter of a World War Two RAF hero, and the grand daughter of two soldiers who fought in World War One, I very strongly object the the treatment meted out to this wounded soldier .

Sadly, on the same day that this disgusting behaviour was reported, another young British Soldier was reported to have been killed in Afghanistan.

All I can say is that, if I  should ever need a hotel in Woking, I would rather sleep in my car, or even on a pavement, than stay at the Metro Hotel in Woking.

There is a saying that all publicity is good publicity…………Let’s hope that this will prove to be the exception to the rule.

In this age where money appears to be the master, rather than the slave, I find myself confused by the dramatically emerging tragedy of arson, death and intrigue which is unfolding by the minute on the TV this week. The family involved are constantly referred to as having millionaire status, yet reading the story, one has the impression that they were, in fact very much like millions of other people in the country, i.e., in negative equity and living well above their means.

The media, too, appears to be caught up in the misconception that having expensive possessions, albeit unpaid for and in reality belonging to somebody else, makes people different from Joe and Jane Bloggs

I find it terribly sad that folk have to try to keep up appearances and lose track of reality.

Mr Micawber had it about right when he stated: “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.”

Somewhere along the line, since I did maths at school (admittedly a long time ago) ‘debit’ became renamed ‘credit’ and I can’t help thinking that that is where the rot started to set in.

Years ago, people tried to avoid being ‘in debt’.

Now it is increasingly rare to find folk who have bank accounts in credit… though to have ‘a good credit rating’ can mean that a person can get very deeply into debt….

What a sad, sad world we live in!

I am indebted to kitmarlowescot2 … via Stonehead for these pictures of a delightful Gloucester Old Spot piglet born this week with appropriate markings for the occasion

Happy St Valentine’s Day…. give someone you love a hug…… and be kind to everybody you meet… little things like just letting somebody out in traffic, for example, can be contagious and spread like ripples on a pond.

First there were three programmes, on three consecutive nights, from Hugh Fearnley Wittingstall comparing the merits (or otherwise) of “Intensive” versus “Free range” chicken meat production. I’ll say no more about this!

Then there was a study of three families’ diets comparing fresh food, standard convenience food and special convenience food. Funnily enough, little coverage was given to the real food, most of the emphasis being on the fact the more expensive ready meals (up to five times more costly) where on the whole less good for the body than the cheaper ones.

No cost comparisons were proffered for the fresh food, but it came out top of the class for its nutritional value, of course.

Then we had Jamie Oliver doing his bit on both the hen and the egg scene to bring home to Joe and Joanna Public the message that there is a need for awareness about the food we eat. I never did fancy those hot dog sausages, but nothing would persuade me to try one now!

At the same time, I was in the middle of re-reading “Not On The Label” by Felicity Lawrence. This should be compulsory reading for anyone who eats.

All in all, it was a week to put anybody off eating anything at all, let alone chicken!

Just as a matter of interest, on Friday I went into the new Sainsbury shop in Gorseinon, half a mile from home, to see how many free range and standard chickens were on display.

To my surprise, there was not a single item of free range chicken to be had. Nor were there spaces where they might have been before, possibly having been ‘bought up’ in reaction to the publicity…. Just rows of standard chickens and chicken parts.

So I asked an employee if it were possible to buy free range products in Sainsburys?

He strode confidently to the shelf, pondered a bit and then said brightly: ” Oh for things like that you would have to go to one of our bigger stores like the one in Swansea city centre” ( seven miles away) ……Why?

I have always prepared real food from scratch every day, and I feel more than ever glad that I never became sucked into the ‘ready meals’ circus.

I have, however, been made even more aware of the value of organic produce, and also of the ever increasing need to read labels carefully and indeed, to read between the lines……

Happily, all the people on board were saved and transferred to dry land without loss of life and, it would appear, without injury, thanks to the speedy response of other vessels in the area and to the magnificent maritime communications which exist today, which were not in place when the ‘Titanic’ was lost.

It is very sad to see a ship go down, even when all its crew and passengers have been saved.

Fortunately, a comprehensive network of rescue activities swung quickly into action, and the experience and expertise of the Captain and crew played a huge part in the safe transfer of everyone on board to the relative safety of the ship’s lifeboats, where they would have had a cold and not very comfortable wait for rescue, despite the fact that the both weather and therefore the sea were comparatively calm.

Meanwhile.………At the other end of the world, three people accepted delivery of a cabin cruiser. They appeared to have no understanding of how it functioned.

Reportedly lacking in any experience or training, they decided to set out to sea from Whitby Harbour in Yorkshire in a force eight (Gale) wind and with seas running at 20m high.

Theirs was the only boat to leave the harbour that day.

They were warned that it was too dangerous.

They were called three times on the radio from the lifeboat station as they left, to try to prevent their exit.

The boat capsized just outside the harbour and it took the bravery of the local lifeboat men and the helicopter service to fetch the two men and one woman from the sea.

All three died.

Why do some people have so little respect for the sea?

Just because Britain historically regards itself as ‘a seafaring nation’, it doesn’t mean that all knowledge of navigation, boat handling, safety procedures, radio etiquette, radio operation, engine operation and maintenance and sailing skills are automatically passed down through the genes. You have to learn it!

We really loved our sailing years. However, we ensured that not only was our boat always maintained to the very highest standard, we also made it our business to be well versed in all the skills and requirements needed to keep us safe, in the hope that we would never need to call on the emergency services.

The RNLI, HM Coastguard etc are there for just that,….EMERGENCY.

On our travels, we came across a frightening number of ‘sailors’ who had not attempted to learn how to sail, had not bothered with RYA navigation classes, had not maintained their craft as it deserved, had not realised the changes in tides and currents at different times, and did not even know how to understand shipping forecasts…. around the UK, let alone in foreign waters.

Two very different kinds of disaster, with very different causes…. but the message is the same: Respect the sea. Understand weather systems. Be aware of the results of climate change’.