At the Mercy of NPower

I recorded my first audio journal of the year a little earlier. I was prompted to do so by something Richard Vobes spoke about on his Naked Englishman podcast. He remarked at how there is more detail carried in an audio journal than in a written diary or blog. He was referring I think to the tone of the voice and the emphasis given to words and phrases. In a way, I think he is probably right. I should record more audio journals, but I do find it a hell of a lot easier to type and I am constantly frustrated at not having enough quiet time for me to record them. I do find I have to be alone when I record them, but even then I seem to recall only the things that are in the forefront of my mind at the time. There are a great many spaces where I'm literally thinking of things that have happened recently or those things that are causing me stress or anxiety, as is often the case nowadays. I will certainly try to maintain regular recordings though I suspect that I will only be able to commit to them weekly.

I am often compelled to write when I become angered or frustrated by something. Normally it is a company or organisation, and more often than not, they have done me a dis-service or are demanding money. In this case, it is NPower and they have done both. We had an arrangement with them by which we would pay £167 a month for our electricity. We have only electricity here, no gas. Although a little higher than average, we were happily paying this. How shocked was I then to receive a bill from them asking for DOUBLE the £167 we had been paying and rather than asking if this is OK, they proceeded to take said sum of money from our bank account. This in effect emptied it and removed any possibility of me paying back the £255 I owe Lincolnshire NHS in respect of overpaid expenses. It is looking as if this will be the amount they will be asking for monthly, and there is simply no way we are able to afford it.
Rather than calling them today, my wife has taken the wise decision to put it off until tomorrow afternoon. I will be sending a strong letter of complaint and we have decided to cancel the direct debit arrangement we have seeing as they cannot be trusted to take only the agreed amount.
I suspect we are not the only ones struggling to pay their electric or gas bills. The media remind us of how more and more families up and down the country are slipping into 'fuel poverty'. I suspect we can now be counted among them.

As I write this, I see on my Twitter feed that Jessops has become the latest high street name to fall into administration. It is a shame of course but given the effect of digital technology over the last 10-15 years, it is no surprise that much of what they offered has become obsolete. In addition, the huge advances in technology have made photography something that anyone can do with ease. High quality cheap home printing has removed the need for large scale photo developing and forced die hard traditionalists into an expensive minority niche market. I am certainly one that laments the loss of traditional photography but I accept that technology is progressive and digital photography has brought with it huge benefits and advancements. The Internet has developed hand in hand with digital cameras providing a seamless connection between the medium and its audience. Indeed there are digital cameras which are now capable of wireless printing and of posting directly to Twitter and Facebook.
I suppose I am surprised Jessops have lasted this long, but I will always remember them for their friendly and knowledgeable staff, coupled with their ability to provide me with Ilford 400 ASA film, which I used during my brief venture into monochrome photography.

I mentioned previously that I would apply to be a writer for the Mass Observation project. Well this I did a couple of hours ago. I believe one of the topics currently is memories of photography, which is pretty apt given current events.
I did also apply to Silver Training to become a computer skills tutor. They emailed back an hour or two later stating that although I have the skills and knowledge to become a tutor, they do not currently operate in this area. They are keeping my details should this change. Worth a try I suppose.

April Showers

My goodness, how quickly the weather can change. It's sod's law that as soon as we have a hosepipe ban, it rains. It had rained pretty much constantly  the last week. We have a drought and reservoirs are less than half-full. Though despite the heavy rain, we are told we need at least three month's continuous rain before reserves can return to anything near normal. So, I continue to catch as much rainwater as I can. My water butt is full and every bucket and vessel large enough is in the garden catching rainfall. I've even applied for a free water saving kit and entered a competition for a free water butt with Anglian Water. They're giving away 5,000 apparently.

I've begun recording an audio blog.  It's something I've wanted to do for some time and I'm hoping it will provide a daily journal of sorts in addition to my written musings.  I had originally planned to use Podbean but discovered after a few postings that there is a monthly usage limit of 100mb, which is frankly useless. So I've decided to use my own site at pcknowledge.co.uk
I've been trying to do something practical with the site as I've done nothing with it for years, despite paying for the ownership and hosting. I'm no expert on websites and I suppose it should be full of stuff computer-related, but to be honest, I could never fully commit myself to keeping it maintained. So I expect it will just be kept as a personal site for now. That is of course unless I get a good offer for it :-)
I will certainly continue to write about my experiences of depression and how it affects me on a daily basis. I already write openly via this blog and will continue to do so, but I wonder if I might dedicate a small section of my site to the subject.

I've lamented previously on the loss of analogue TV across the UK in favor of crisp clean digital. Last week saw London make the switch to digital and the conversion of the Crystal Palace transmitter. This has a level of significance for me as I used to live in South London, under the gaze of the Crystal Palace transmitter, and I recall with fondness the hours spent tuning my TV and the attempts to obtain a good picture. Quite often I would fiddle about until I got a good picture on ITV only to find that the BBC channels were covered in 'snow' or 'ghosting'. Although there are many who question why the switch to digital was made, it is clear the conversion has gone extremely well. The advantages are obvious to anyone who takes an interest in this sort of thing and the increased number of channels provide a level of choice previously impossible under analogue.

The Bahrain Grand Prix has been in the news this last week. There have been calls for the race to be canceled due to criticism of the government and its treatment of protesters and opposition groups. It is clear to me that given the evidence appearing on the Internet, the government are certainly guilty of using extreme measures to control and put down any attempts at protest and this should rightly be condemned. It is also my opinion that the race should be canceled as a sign of our disapproval. Unfortunately though, where there is money to be made, justice and liberty take second place and as our own government have so much invested in this dictatorship, I suspect nothing will be done apart from the odd low-level rebuke.

I am worried about my father. He has recently had several moles removed from his body including his face and is due to have some stitches removed tomorrow. The hospital have been sufficiently concerned to remove anything they consider to be suspect and this has frankly left him resembling the victim of a road accident. I was quite shocked to see the dressings do find myself worrying as to whether this may be the prelude to something more serious. I am more convinced than ever that years spent gardening and working on his allotment in blazing sunshine has been the root cause and that the presence of moles has provided the environment for cancer cells to develop. This is a dreadful lesson and one that isn't sadly learned early enough. It is only when it is too late that the lesson is learned and it serves as a reminder that what we do in our former years can have a significant and sometimes devastating effect later on. I am hopeful that everything has been caught and removed in good time, but I know my father. He will not make a fuss if he feels unwell. He very rarely discusses his health and if there was something more seriously wrong, I fear he wouldn't mention it, not even to my mum. This worries me deeply.