Pass the blame

So here we are at the beginning of September with all the new students looking forward to going to 'uni'.


I am soooooooooo going to have a 'uni' RANT soon.


Anyway to get back to this rant...................  It has only just come to my attention that if kids these days don't get the marks they think they should have...............  exam papers can be re-marked???


As a 'ranting middle aged spinster' who did exams in the 1970's there was never such a thing as 're-marking'?? 


In my day, you sat in an exam hall in complete silence (apart from the click, click, click of the exam invigilator's knitting needles) and when you got your results you just accepted them.


A couple of years ago, my very clever nephew got As & A*s in all of his exams.  To me that was a great achievement.  But because he hadn't got an A* in one of them he said it was his teachers fault???   Why???


And also.................... to recall a conversation that I had with my 13 year old niece about subjects I hated at school, couldn't do and failed the exams in......................


................Her comment was.......................  'Oh you mustn't have had a very good teacher.'


........Nooooooooooooooooo...................... I just wasn't the brightest cookie in the box. Duh!!!


Why does everyone seem to want to put the blame onto someone else these days? 


Apparently the A level markers these days are given 3 mins to do it.  Which means that any kid who doesn't get the grade they think they should, can have it re-marked.  The school can request to have it remarked.  The parents can request to have it remarked.  The kids can request to have it remarked.


Obviously this happens a lot because 'pushy parents' and schools that want to 'up the league tables' obviously want better results.


BUT.................  I think it would be really interesting to see if kids that had been predicted lower grades and then got higher grades.......................


...................Said, 'Please re-mark this'?????


Can't see that ever happening???

Online banking

Haven't ranted for ages but I'm seriously annoyed that the two credit cards that I own seem to have converted to paperless billing.  I don't have a problem with that.  I'm a very techie ranting middle aged spinster!!


What I do have a problem with is................. that I haven't a clue when they told me they were going to do this?????


And now I've just had some random email telling me that my statement is available to view online and when I clicked into my account I've got an overdue amount of £27.89 to pay???


I have NEVER in my whole entire life had to pay late charges/interest for my credit cards.  I pay them off in full every single month and have done for more than 30 years.  This is so so annoying.  Perhaps they did send me notification of this?  But I'm pretty sure if they had, I would have made a note of it somewhere???  Maybe they just sent me an email..................  In which case I probably would have just deleted it thinking it was some kind of spam because they always contact me via snail mail.


Actually, I quite like getting my statements online.  I'll just make a note in my diary that I have to check my on line accounts to see if I have any thing to pay.


BUT.................. what really, really, really, annoyed me about paying off my credit card (with it's late charges/interest) is.......................... the DEFAULT button.


Obviously I wanted to pay off the full amount but the default button had already ticked the 'interest only' box.  So I had to un-tick it and tick the full amount box.  How many people will just carry on thinking that they're paying off the full amount (because the tick boxes weren't even parallel to the relevant charges).


This to my mind is mis-representation???


This is soooooo, soooooo annoying.


And the thing is..........................  Who do I complain to??????


If I phone any of these credit companies all you get is some automated message saying, 'Your call is important to us.  You are moving forward in the queue.'.


Just don't get me started???!!!


I think I might have to have another phone rant.  Grrrrrrrr............

Why can't holiday makers park?

So I haven't ranted for ages.  And believe me I've had loads of things to RANT about but I haven't.  I've tried to be restrained?!!




One week into the school holidays and my ressie car park is being over run with holiday maker cars................  I'm sorry but I have to rant.




What is it about holiday makers that means they can't park their cars properly?  All the holiday let agencies in this town give the holiday makers the dimensions of their car parking spaces so that they know whether their car will fit. It's not my fault if the visitors don't know what size their car is???



This is a small fishing town.  It was built hundreds of years ago when cars hadn't even been invented.  Most properties in this town don't even have a parking space so those of us who do are extremely lucky.




And yet still people come on holiday in their huge 4 x 4's expecting to be able to fit them into a space that only a smart car will fit into.  So today, in my car park there are 3 huge cars that are way to big for the spaces (& we have big spaces compared to the rest of the town?).


Should I photograph these cars and 'name & shame' the holiday makers who think it's acceptable to leave their cars in the middle of a communal car park.  This is sooooo, soooo disruptive to the rest of us?  If we want to go out or come in, we have to go knocking on doors to ask the holiday makers to move their cars so that we can actually drive into our own spaces that we occupy 52 weeks of the year.


Why on earth do people book a holiday, get told the dimensions of their parking space, and then just think they can park wherever they want, even if that means blocking other people in?


.............And don't even think that you can speak to these holiday makers in a civilised fashion.


If you so much as say to them, that the holiday let they are saying in, has confirmed the parking space dimensions, they just give you a mouthful of abuse and say they haven't measured their car.


Why not???


Every single person who comes on holiday and stays in a holiday let property in this town has to sign a form to say they've read the terms & conditions of the booking. 


They sign it, agree to everything and then just do their own thing when they arrive.  And there's nothing us ressies can do.


Makes me mad!  Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.......................

Where are we staying?

Living in the Southwest and working in the tourism industry; I really don't feel that I can divulge exactly where I live.  I really wish I could because........... honestly, I'd really like to 'name & shame' some of the very stupid requests from holidaymakers that I have to deal with at work on a daily basis.


Holiday makers drive us all mad??!!


Take today for example;


Man phones and says, 'I'm coming on holiday I'm omitting the name of the town here to the SW next week and I need a high chair.'


And this is the conversation that followed:


ME - 'Yes, we can do that for you.  Where are you staying?'


MAN - He names the town.


ME - 'OK, Can you give me the name & address of the property?'


MAN - 'No'.


ME - 'Have you booked it through an agency or is it a private let?'


MAN - 'I don't know. My wife booked it'.


ME - 'Can I speak to your wife?'


MAN - 'No - she's at work but she told me I had to book a high chair.'


ME - 'I'll provisionally book a high chair for you. What dates are you coming on holiday?  And can I please have your name & a contact number.  And when you've spoken to your wife can you please call back to confirm exactly what you want?'


MAN - 'It's in (he names the town) but I'm not sure of the dates, my wife booked it. And I don't know what my phone number is.'


At this point I really feel like slapping him.  But obviously I can't because he's just some incompetent person on the phone who hasn't actually got a clue where he's going on holiday, when he's going on holiday and I doubt if he even knows who exactly he's going on holiday with??? And also he wants to book a high chair so he's a client and I have to be nice to him.


ME -  (trying to be really friendly & super efficient here)- 'OK, if you give me your name & number, I'll give you a call back in the morning, once you've spoken to your wife.  Then we can get the 'high chair' booked in for you and we'll be able to deliver it to your holiday property free of charge'.


MAN - 'I don't know what my number is.'


ME - I'm losing patience here?!!  Obviously I did not say that!!!!


ME - OK. Not a problem.  I'll be in the office 9-5pm tomorrow, so just give me a call.


Idiots???????????????????????????????????


Obviously 'Mr I don't know where I'm staying, I don't know what dates I'm staying, I haven't got a clue who I'm going on holiday with???'..................................


...............................Is  probably not going to get his high chair???  LOL!!!!!


What amazes me though...............................


............................Is why don't they just leave all the organising to their wives????


And then everything would be sorted????? LOL!!!!!!

Instruction Manuals

Today I am going to RANT about 'instruction manuals.'


I am seriously not happy.


I have bought a 'fitbit' pedometer.  I want to measure the distance I walk every day. I want to be 'dead techie' and plot all my walking on my computer or on my  iphone.


Unfortunately I am NOT 'dead techie'??  I naively thought that my 'fitbit' would come with instructions.  My fitbit does not come with instructions.  It comes with a bit of paper that says (in 6 different languages), 'to set up, go to: www.fitbit.com/setup'


OK, so I've tried that.  I got so far and then it asked me to sign in with a Facebook account or a Google account?? Tried signing in with a google account and it kept telling me that my 'user name' or password was incorrect.  Which it's not.  Grrrrrrrrrrrrr....................


I don't really want to try signing in with my Facebook account because I have a fear of it infiltrating all my friends and doing stuff I don't want it to do.


Why on earth can products not just include a step by step 'paper' manual of what to do???


Why is life so complicated????


And at one point in the 'online set up procedure' it said, 'make sure the tracker is next to the computer'.  What on earth is the 'tracker'??????


These companies that sell 'techie devices' (that a lot of old people use) need to realise that us oldies OK middle aged trendy people haven't a clue about 'modern jargon'.  How on earth can I make sure the 'tracker' is next to the computer if I don't even know what a 'tracker is???  I just shoved everything that had come in the box next to the computer and it still didn't work.


And that brings me to the next RANT......................  The pedometer & all it's bits were in a box about 2inches square.  The packaging was about 10ins x 5ins.  Just how un environmentally friendly was that???


This whole thing is just doing my head in!!!


So I've done what any old middle aged trendy  person would do and have invited a couple of youngsters over tomorrow night to sort it out for me.  Yay!!!

Needy friends

OK I've called this post 'Needy Friends'.


'Needy Friends' are friends that actually think they're you're friends but actually; you're only a 'friend' to 'off load' on.  OK I've just read through this RANT - I love my 'needy friends'.


I've just spent 40 mins on the phone to a 'needy friend'.


'Needy friend' phoned and before I knew it, I'm hearing all about the latest trauma in her life.  Admittedly when I answered the phone she said, 'How are you, what have you been up to?'  I tried to tell her what I'd been up to.........................


..........................Obviously she wasn't interested because 'needy friend' is going through a trauma.  'Needy friend' is always going through a trauma??!!  I've known 'needy friend' for more than 35 years and 'needy friend' has spent her whole life going through trauma's.


At our age middle aged we've all gone through a load of traumas in our life. But for most of us, we just 'dust ourselves down and get on with it.'  Not so my 'needy friend'.  For the last 35+ years my 'needy friend' has been phoning me on a regular basis to discuss the latest trauma in her life.  And believe me - there's always a trauma in her life.


Sometimes I feel a bit guilty that I just sit on the phone agree-ing/disagree-ing/commenting on what she's telling me.  At other times I just think that she's had copious quantities of wine or whisky and won't even remember the conversation in the morning??


BUT.....................  At the end of the day, she's been my friend for more than 35 years.


Yes, she's ALWAYS got problems.  She always will have.  BUT, she's my friend & I love her.


.................And after more than 35 years I'm pretty sure that we'll always be mates!!!!!!

Bin Bags

OK, so you may not feel that 'bin bags' are worthy of a 'RANT'???


They most certainly are.


A few weeks ago I bought some 'extra strong' bin bags from a well known supermarket.  'Extra strong'?? - 10 for £1.  That's 10p per bin bag.  My bin bags are anything but 'extra strong'.  In fact if the truth be told......................  My 'extra strong' bin bags are actually 'extra weak'.


To say I am furious about this mis-representation of my bin bags is an understatement.


So far I have used four of these so called extra strong bin bags.  And so far every time I have taken the bin bag out of the bin it has split.  That means, I then have to put the 'extra strong bin bag' into another 'extra strong bin bag'.  That means that every time I use a bin bag I actually have to use 2 bin bags.  So now my bin bags are costing me 20p per bin bag.


Unfortunately, I can't remember which supermarket I bought these 'extra strong bin bags' from???


It is so, so annoying though.  I think I might do a bit of 'googling' to see what criteria is used for describing a bin bag as 'extra strong'??


I can't believe that I am 'ranting' about bin bags??  Bin bags are just bin bags - black sacks that one fills up with rubbish.  ................BUT if you fill up your 'extra strong' black bin bag with rubbish and then it splits and all the rubbish falls out, the minute you try to move it...................  Then in my opinion................  that is NOT an 'extra strong bag'???


Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.......................