A frosty day

It was pretty cold overnight, and we saw ice on the water for the first time today; only cat ice in the shallow margins, but still ice. The frost layer on the pontoons made for very careful walking; I had some ash in the bucket, so sprinkled that on the route from the boat to the safer ground of the spine of land that runs down to our mooring.

It being a nice day for a walk, we went down into the village to post a couple of presents and to buy some stuff from the Co-op for a change. The wind started to come up, so we were glad to get back indoors to the warmth of the Squirrel. We're getting through the coal a bit faster now, as I'm stoking the stove to stay in overnight.

Yesterday in Midland Chandlers we bought the new issues of Waterways World and Canal Boat. The latter contains Martin Ludgate's Christmas Quiz. It seems a bit trickier this year, with more pictorial stuff that's always harder to spot if you don't happen to know that location, but we've had a good thrash at it today and it's starting to look quite sorry for itself.

Elanor had planned to come over and run Sally this afternoon, but she got held up in town, first off getting new front tyres on her car, and then arguing with the staff in the 3 store. She'd been rung by the customer retention team and offered a contract extension and a new phone, but when the phone came, it proved to be a Samsung Galaxy Mini, despite her telling  the sales staff that she didn't want a touch screen, just a basic button phone.

When she phoned to arrange a swap, she was told that she could go into the 3 store to do it, but that's not how they saw it in the store. In addition, the only button phone they had was a rather sad looking Nokia, so it looks like she's going to repudiate the whole deal and go elsewhere.

Last heard of, she was in Carphone Warehouse reviewing her options with them. I knew 3 didn't have a very good rep for its customer service, but this seems particularly feeble of them.

She's coming round to see us tomorrow, so more on this anon, I expect.