04/05/23 Games afternoon, and palaeontology:

 Miniature boules in the Sky Lounge:

I was umpiring that "match".

and carpet bowls:

and finally, our mysterious collection of fossilised dinosaur eyeballs...

03/05/23 Myeloma news

 At last! At last!!

Copying this from a post I've just put on the Facebook group:

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I had my second 'phone consultation with my NHS consultant about 4pm this afternoon. All bloods ok again apart from a fractionally high FLC ratio, probably a result of the upper respiratory tract infection I was brewing up when the blood was taken. Nothing serious and my temperature never went up. Last time she ordered an MRI on my troublesome and erratic left thigh pain, and I had that done a couple of weeks ago on a cancellation. Results were in, and nothing found in my femur. But "incidental to the main scan" they found some degenerative change in my knee (not too surprising in mid-70s) and a "benign cyst" in my left pelvis. That's where I had the big lytic lesion that led to a pathological fracture and my myeloma diagnosis. It's not in quite the same spot but she thinks it might be connected to the healing / remodelling process for that lesion. Anyway, they've had a Multi-Disciplinary Team meeting, and she wants another MRI of my left hip and to bring Orthopaedics in as it's weight-bearing and they think there's significant risk of a fracture. I can only assume that means they're thinking in terms of some surgical intervention, possibly inserting some titanium reinforcement to go along with the bits of it I already have in my neck.

Three and a half hours later, the 'phone rang. Broomfield Hospital - they have an MRI cancellation, could I come in 10am tomorrow morning? Not at all convenient, as I have other appointments, so I asked when's the next available date? Saturday 6th, 2:10pm. It'll mean missing the back-end of the Coronation, but I can live with that.

NHS delays?? Not a sign of them. So far it's been wonderful, and faster-moving than the private system was. Maybe I'm just lucky, but I'm mightily impressed.

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02/05/23 Plant

 I thought we had acquired a new pot plant near the lift just round the corner from our apartment

but a few hours later it had disappeared. Probably gone onto the balcony of the flat behind that brown door, which is being fitted out as a new show apartment. That's a pity, a few plants would brighten the corridors up. But Health & Safety would probably ban them as a trip hazard...

Found in a cupboard in the Sky Lounge:

Not the real thing, but possibly better than nothing. First game scheduled for tomorrow afternoon...

01/05/23 (2) Yesterday's photos

 Woke up 05:30 and couldn't get back to sleep, so...

Here's the scene outside before the morning traffic gets started:

Yesterday's photos:

Outside the Brewhouse and Kitchen near the train station. Very pleasant outside terrace, and a spectacular interior of the old Quaker meeting rooms. I'll get some photos of the inside next time.

Paper Mill Lock on the first decent day of this rather dismal Spring so far.

Heybridge Basin (a favourite spot) with the tide as far out as I've ever seen it.

No sign of the forecast rain this morning, so aiming to go to Epping for some boules...

01/05/23 Back again...

It's been even longer this time. Not easy toget back into the habit of regular blogging especially with nothing new on the myeloma front and the whole upheaval of moving home. Also - and I'm not complaining because I enjoy it (on the whole) and I believe it's important - my work as lead admin for the Facebook group takes up more and more time. At it today almost continuously from 2pm when we got home from a trip to Heybridge Basin until midnight. Sometimes starts to feel like a full-time job...

Anyway, finally got a cancellation appointment for the long-awaited MRI on my left thigh. No results through yet. 'Phone call with my new consultant due on Wednesday, should at least get the results of the most recent bloods.

The 'phone issue is at last resolved - I have a new one which is working perfectly, but I haven't had the promised call from the technical people at O2. The good man in the O2 shop advised me to email a complaint, and here it is:

Mobile no. xxxxx xxxxxx

 

A summary of the story:

Went online to register a recent change of address and order upgrade from my S21 Ultra to S23 Ultra.

Unable to do change of address on website, went to online chat.

Did address change, was assured that it was registered on system. Was asked if I wanted to do upgrade there and then. Said yes, as long as sure it would be delivered to correct new address as I no longer have access to old address. Was assured that yes, ok, delivery would be to new address.

Attempt was made to deliver to wrong (old) address….

‘Phone call to 202, more online chat, yes sir we’ll re-deliver to correct address.

Wrong again. Repeat several times, with variations. Finally, couriers (DPD) delivered phone through letterbox of old address without obtaining signature from anyone as property is unoccupied. I checked that no attempt had been made to deliver to or obtain signature from neighbours.

Although I was told on phone (202) that a “special team” had been assigned to recover the phone I never heard anything from them. Eventually went through two estate agents and got agreement to meet at the property when I recovered the phone. That was on April 8^th.

In my view, the decent standard of customer service would have been, at the first failure to deliver correctly, to say “Sorry sir, our fault, we’ll deal with recovering the mis-delivered phone and we’re sending you another one to the right address straight away”. I would have been happy with that. However, all suggestions along those lines met with point-blank refusal and all responsibility for recovering the phone was put back on me.

Then nightmare #2 began….

New phone would not connect to O2 network. Took it to O2 shop in Chelmsford (April 10th, I think) - at first reluctant to have anything to do with it because I got it from O2 online not through the shop. This distinction in my view is absurd and the very essence of customer unfriendliness. However…

Luke in the O2 shop concluded that the handset had been tagged as lost or stolen and therefore blocked, barred, banned or otherwise disabled – although I had never reported it as lost or stolen (whereabouts known at all times, just not accessible to me) and had never been told about any ban being imposed – another failure of customer relations. Luke eventually got it working by swapping the SIM into slot 2 as a temporary fix and, off his own bat, after I left the shop he initiated a “higher level” complaint to a “senior technical officer” and was promised that I would get a call back within five working days to discuss the problems and appropriate compensation. Ten working days later I have had no such contact.

Temporary is the right word for that fix as the phone went “Unable to connect to network” before I got home just 15 minutes away. Back to the shop…

Repeated with variations several times over next few days. The final straw was going to a hospital appointment for an MRI scan when the phone went “No network connection” again, leaving me unable to use the apps I rely on for public transport and bus connections. Thanks to that I was over half an hour late for the appointment, after which I went back to the shop…

Then, and at long last, I was offered a return and exchange for the phone, in which I had lost all confidence. It seems that somewhere in your systems, despite all the attempts to clear the bans and bars, something was still recognising the handset as stolen/lost (even though it never was either).

The second new phone was delivered efficiently and the first one returned. The second new phone is working just as it should. But I have not had that call back.

Believe me, this is the short version of the saga.

I have been without service. I have wasted any amount of time on fruitless chats and phone calls and visits to the Chelmsford shop – not always easy for me as I am a blood cancer patient with limited mobility. I have had more phone calls to deal with estate agents and get access to the old property as well as incurring more travel costs to get there. I have experienced considerable and very unwelcome stress which could have been avoided simply by doing the right thing much earlier in the saga. Until that last stage, the quality of customer support I have received from O2 has been completely inadequate and simply appalling.

I therefore believe that substantial compensation would be appropriate.

 

I look forward to hearing from you.

 

No reply to that yet either....

A few recent photos below. More about them next time. I have one more thing to do for Myeloma Support UK before I call it a night....

 

10/04/23 Upgrade

Total nightmare going back a couple of weeks now over what should have been a simple upgrade of my phone from an S21 Ultra to an S23 Ultra. Far too long and convoluted a tale to tell here but O2 have massively cocked up every aspect and today, after spending much of the morning in the Chelmsford shop I left with a working phone (if only by a rather unsatisfactory workaround for the main problem). I got home, tried to make a call, and got "No network connection". Back into town, find another disabled parking slot, back to the shop...

So now I have two phones neither of which work.

One of them "might" start working by mid-day tomorrow. If not, it'll probably be back to the shop again.

Not a satisfied customer. Not at all.

09/04/23 Back to Boules

The gaps between posts seem to get longer and longer. Still busy with all the consequences of the move - just one cardboard box of surplus multipoints left now. Various meals out which I'll post photos of a bit later. The old #1 computer didn't survive the move and has now been replaced, and the old three-monitor setup has been updated to a single "ultrawide" curved screen.

More myeloma blood tests due Tuesday 18th, and I need to phone the new GP surgery about some routine blood test results from March 13th (no idea where those results went or what happened to them) and also about my 3-monthly B12 injection which is due on the 26th.

Main news of the day is that I played boules at Ongar this morning - first time for six months, what with having to stop driving because of the cataracts, then the cold winter weather, and then the move. It was the day of the annual "Twinning" match against a French team from Cerizay. We won my match 13-10, and the final score against the French was a magnifique 3-1 win. We then played "friendlies" with one English and one French against another mixed pair. Won that one too, by 13-11. Particularly pleasing because my Ongar opponent was one of the stronger match players in the club. A rare pleasure to beat her!