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Arkwright - The Independent Voice
I’ve been in court this month. Nothing I’ve done wrong, just there supporting my octogenarian father for a driving offence. I collected the old boy and as we drove into the town centre you’d have thought I was 17 again on a provisional licence. He kept telling me to change lanes, not let people cut in, it was clear to go when it clearly wasn’t and insisted it was my road when I gave way to a juggernaut. “A Smart car does not argue with a lorry of that size” I said, then added more calmly, “Who’s up for this driving offence anyway?” A little mean I confess but we drove on in silence after that.
Prior to the hearing we had to meet up with the solicitor for a final briefing and as we left the coffee shop a member of staff came out shouting, “Stop! Thieves!” We looked around ready to be have-a-go-heroes and found she was referring to us as we’d left without paying! The headline flashed before me “85-year-old banned from driving but first steals coffee aided and abetted by solicitor and family”. I just wanted to go home, this was not going to be a good day. However, our fortunes changed and amazingly things went well in court; Dad’s still a free man allowed to drive about the place as if he’s Lewis Hamilton and we’d avoided being arrested for theft once it was explained each of us had assumed the other had paid for the coffee when in fact none had. I dropped him home and returned to the shop anticipating a less stressful end to the day.
As I breezed in I immediately sensed that my new recruit had something on her mind. She told me there’d been a phone call from Reebok, “They were chasing a missing balance”. By her tone I could tell she was thinking I didn’t pay my bills and was wondering whether she’d get paid at the end of the week. Great! just when she was settling in so well. Having made known my suspicions of takeovers last month I felt further irritation at them, as this was clearly a result of the Reebok/adidas merger.
Now let me see, at the changeover Reedidas sent out a letter asking that all future payments be made into an adidas account so, unusually, I did as I was told and paid the due amount into said adidas account. I even sent a remittance advice detailing what I’d done so I knew all was in order but my reputation was damaged in the eyes of this member of staff.
In contrast, had it been Yellow Pages ringing me I would have proudly confessed to owing them money as they failed to follow my instructions on my last entry and I’ve refused to pay. Despite having “an outstanding account” which has now been passed to a debt recovery agency (scary!), Yell have written to me this week: “It’s time to renew your Yellow Pages advertising and as you’re one of our most valued customers…..” How does that work? The accounts department have me blacklisted and the sales department are selling to me – a perfect example of how sloppy joined up practice is at big companies. Then when you ring any of them to sort matters out they insult you by telling you, “Your call may be recorded for training purposes”. Oh, if only it was! With what I’ve got to say used at the next training session they may actually learn and achieve something!
I thought I had just the right person for England football manager but nobody listened. I drafted up a CV and sent it in to the FA, not so much as an acknowledgement. They don’t know the opportunity they’ve missed but then what do they know about football? Probably about the same as the Government knows about security of sensitive material and covering their tracks when they’ve screwed up. The FA and the media stressed how it needed to find the right man for the job, for some reason no one even considered a woman – does no one challenge the sex discrimination of the FA? Let’s face it, men are first bossed around and fussed over by their mothers who then pass them over to their WAGS to organise the rest of their lives. Forget 4-4-2, just find some bossy little madam who says, “Go out there, play as if your life depends on it. You lose this time and any sponsorship contract you’ve got is in the bin”. They’d soon sit up and listen. The candidate who is capable of this? My four-year-old niece, she frightens most of the family with her organisational skills and being half German has the advantage of added determination. Ridiculous you may think, but could she do any worse?
