Wednesday, 5th January, 2022

[Day 660]

Today was one of those ‘intermediate’ type of days when you know there is a lot to be done before the day that follows. We knew that we had to ‘stay in’ all this afternoon because I had received an intimation from one of the local hospitals that a consultant was going to give me a routine ‘telephone’ conversation some time this afternoon – could I hold myself in readiness some time between 1.00pm and 5.00pm. So in order to save a bit of time, we went down into town by car (again) in order both to pick up our newspaper and to get to the park more quickly. On our way into the park, we bumped into Seasoned World Traveller but he had been in search of a coffee from the closed cafe in the park so was heading off to the High Street in search of a decent cappuchino. So we went up to our normal bench, the weather being reasonably fine but pretty cold. Nonetheless, we bumped into an elderly Irish couple we know fairly well (friends of friends) and we exchanged seasonal greetings and chatted about things meteorological. Then they walked on and we met anothet couple that we know quite well by sight and so another interesting chat ensued. By now, the time was pressing on so we raced home and made ourself a fairly quick dinner of quiche and quick cook veg. Now we were all set up to do our jobs for the afternoon but no sooner had sat down when our near neighbour came round to the house with even more intimations from the bank that manages our community affairs that there were going to discontinue our account.

Then followed an unbelievably frustrating afternoon. First we had our Treasurer’s credentials restored and this we managed at the 3rd attempt. For the first two attempts, our generated key code would not be accepted so we had to enlist some online help who could only suggest that we log out and then log in again as the problem may be due to a time-out problem. So eventually we got our Treasurer reinstated leaving me to try to tackle the bank once again to get through their safeguarding procedures. This is when he frustration (on my part) reached unbelievable levels because the voice on the other end of the phone wanted to go through my security credentials. I pointed out I had already had two long vists to the bank and supplied them with an updated form on two occasions which they were ‘considering’ but they needed to be told the exact date upon which I had last visted the bank. Because I could not remember the exact date upon which I had at last been in the Bank, this was regarded as a ‘failure’ of their security procedures and so do the SafeGuarding Unit of the bank could not unlock my previous correspondence with the bank as I couldn’t prove who I was. I was advised to go along to the Branch (with passport etc,) to follow their procedures to identify me even though this has been done on two occasiopns before. After I had had a cup of tea, it occurred to ne that I could consult past issues of this blog which I did and discovered the exact date of my visit. I then telephoned the Bank again, feeling pleased with myself, but they refused again to allow me hrough their security procedures on the grounds that I had just failed to get past their security procedures – until I had filled in a form, printed it off, signed it, made a .pdf of it and then go down to the Bank (for a third time) so that the bank staff can verify my identity and submit a form which verifies my identity before they will even start to look at the ‘locked’ file which details what I have done to comply with safeguading proedures. So this will have to wait until Friday.

Now it was time to take down the Christmas decoration. This was a multi-stage process. First I removed the Chrustmas cards in time for a careful read and a note of news and any new addresses. Then the actual decorations came down. Then I disassembled the little fibre optic Christmas tree I have in our living room and put away the little cribs that we get out at Christmas time. Then it was time to disrobe the Christmas tree and that did not take too long. Then this has to be split into sections and packed away in the box it came from. Then all of this lot had to be got into the loft after which I hoovered the floor, reestablished the location of our Monk’s Bench in the hall and breathed a sigh of relief that all was put away for another year – and on 12th Night as well!