Shouldn't have gone to Specsavers!

http://www.blipfoto.com/view.php?id=881124

The link for the picture of my broken glasses is above.

I've be tweeting Angry Tweets all afternoon and have uploaded the above to Blipfoto, I need to write down what happened today and leave the emotion out of it. I won't be slagging anyone off, however I will be using names of all involved.

I went into town with a list of little post Christmas things to do 'sans' family. One of those jobs was to get my Black Jaspers adjusted because over time they have become a little loose to wear. So I went into Specsavers in Colchester and Arron (young lad, wearing glasses and a Mr Men T shirt) greeted me. I told him I needed my glasses adjusted so he took me over to sit down. Colin (Hope) manager and franchise owner of the branch came over and shook my hand and said 'welcome to our new shop' I've been a customer of Specsavers Colchester for well over 15 years so Colin and I know each other a little.

Colin and I had a little small talk whilst Arron checked my glasses and then got up to go over to a machine to heat up the frames. Colin was stood next to him. Colin saw that Arron had broken the frame and after a brief discussion he offered by way of compensation 50% off a new pair.

Call me 'churlish' if you like but I thought that I would be offered full repair or a full replacement 'no questions asked' because a member of Specsavers staff had broken my glasses. Colin made it quite clear that the deal he was offering was actually quite a good deal because my glasses were more than 2 years old and actually he was being very generous. I am a daily contact lens wearer and these glasses are worn a few hours in the evening so not 'old' and 'out of warranty' as he suggested. Whilst I understand that Arron did not deliberately set out to  break my glasses I find it hard to accept that I need to 'buy' a new pair because Specsavers broke them.

Colin then mentioned that Arron should have given me the 'Specsavers will adjust at your own risk' warning before touching my glasses. I've been a glasses wearer for 30 years and I've never heard an optician say this to me.  By Arron's own admission and agreed by Colin, Arron didn't issue the 'warning' before attempting to adjust my glasses.

I left the branch when we were no longer making any progress with the argument and I visited DandA and also Vision Express. Both of them said that if it had happened in their stores they would have either repaired or replaced, but certainly not offered to 'sell' me another pair. I went back to Specsavers to speak to Colin Hope again about this. He was still holding his ground on the 50% discount on a new pair and stated that the other 2 opticians were liars. (bit unprofessional)

So this is where we are. I went into Specsavers to get my glasses adjusted. They broke them and I have to buy a new pair from them at my cost. The 'compensation' offered of 50% off a new pair is no different to the advertised 2 for 1 offer so how is that actually compensation?

The Specsavers website has no section about complaints or customer service issues. All it has is a 'Contact Your Branch'. This is a problem when the branch is the problem. I have requested a 'contact' from the website so hopefully in the next 48 hours someone apart from the owner of the Colchester Specsavers will get in touch.

This is far from over.

Artful Dodger 'It's all about the Stragglers'

I'm back again, after taking some time off and being a bit lazy. I've been inspired by reading some wonderful blogs so here I am again. I suppose blogging is a bit like Twitter. It can take a while to 'find ones voice' and 'sometimes one can't be arsed' with it all. I'm not going to think of this as blogging, I'll pretend I'm writing a column for a really cool magazine that no one reads...

I've pulled out a couple of CDs from my stash. Artful Dodger is playing at the moment. It's been on repeat since 9.30am. Here's a little recap as to why I'm doing this little exercise. I've been listening to and buying music nearly all my life and I love love love music. However, I stopped strongly connecting new music to events and memories a few years back. The old stuff's fine, but nothing new. I'm certain that this coincided with the purchase of my first iPod. Too much music on tap, too much choice and not spending enough time listening to 1 thing. Sure, there's still the odd piece of music that I can hear that transports me straight back somewhere however I feel this is getting rarer and rarer these days with current music.

I'm revisiting every CD I own and writing about the feelings and memories it evokes. Sometimes it does nothing.

'It's All About the Stragglers' is one of those albums for me. I've had it playing now for nearly 4 hours now and I don't really get a sense of time or place from it. I know I didn't buy this, I'm sure it was from the insurance company after we were burgled. It's the only album of this genre I own. It's good though. Richly produced, clean, bright and bassy. I'm listening to it on my proper hifi in my office and it sounds quite fat and organic... Do you know what I mean?

My mate Ben called me earlier and I told him what I was listening to. He actually booked Artful Dodger a couple times to gig at his Uni a few years back.

I'm glad I pulled this out. It's definitely a HIFI cd. You need space to appreciate this kind of sound. The really annoying thing about this CD is that it has 99 tracks. 12 real ones, followed by 86 silent ones and then 1 last hidden track. What's the point? It's just annoying.

2 things you must know about this CD

1. Craig David's on it (not too annoying either)
2. It's where 're re wind when the crowd say Bo Selecta' came from

It's 10 years old you know?! Blimey, that surprised me...

Hello and Welcome Again!

I've been really really lazy re my blogging this year.

My last proper entry was my London Marathon 2010 entry in April and then I've totally stopped. I had a little looky at my blog and I'm going to make some time and start the music blogging again. I suppose I just don't want this blog to end up a 'dormant' blog.

One thing I have been doing everyday is blipfoto. This has given me the discipline to 'blog' everyday. So, I'll be giving it a go again.

Currently listening to the Beatles Red Album.

Friday Woods Colchester

Blackberry picking at Friday Woods September 2010

Another Rainy BBQ

Entertainment on a long train journey

Came back from a work do with 3 girls from my team who LOVE their celebrity mags.

It was an interesting 3hr journey back. I've never read them before.


Notice the lack of work Blackberries, diaries etc...


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A few Pictures from a bike ride today.

www.blipfoto.com

Just over a month ago my twitter friend @lincolngreen tweeted a picture from a website called blipfoto.


I had a little look and joined on May 3. It also coincided with my new camera and spending more time taking pictures again. If you haven't seen the site, do go and have a look. The idea is very simple. Upload 1 picture taken that day, everyday to the website. You can tag it and write a little text and add hyperlinks.


I've been addicted to this website ever since. The interesting thing is that there are all sorts of people posting here. Some are proficient photographers, some are just posting using iphone apps, some are sad and some are happy. The one major thing I have noticed is how polite and grammatically correct everyone is here.


I have posted everyday since May 3 2010 and hope to continue doing so. I'll post the odd picture here too and link up.

It's a really cool community and has disciplined me to think about and take some proper photos everyday. I'm looking at every day through fresh eyes. I've also noticed I'm spending much less time on Twitter too.


If you haven't seen the site, click the link


http://www.blipfoto.com/jayman888

Big Bertha canon

Borrowed this Canon 70-300mm telezoom from a mate today. To 'evaluate'





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Bocking Windmill Some Pictures

Pictures of 2 places my family lived in in the 70's and 80's

I was out on business and had to do a site survey for a client this week and remembered I actually lived the town 30 years ago. I lived in this town from the early 70's to the mid 80s and we lived in 4 different places. I got all nostalgic and went to see a couple of the places my family used to live. I took a couple of sneaky pictures.

This is the first one, a takeaway we owned in the early 70's.

This is the other one, late 70's to early 80's. I was scared of this house because it had a basement with tunnels. Also when we lived there there was no conservatory, just a carport with parking for only 1 car. The current owners have 3!

Next time I'm in the town again I'll go and find the other 2 properties and get pictures of them. It was really weird seeing these 2 places again after over 30 years.

A few shots with my new camera

My Virgin London Marathon 2010

I wanted to commit my thoughts and memories somewhere about the London Marathon because it was such an amazing day. So here it is.

My audioboos can be found at http://audioboo.fm/jayman888

I uploaded 8 audioboo voice clips on Marathon day. Just cut and paste the link above. I could only load 1 one this blog

I stayed over with my cousin on the Saturday night and slept really well. Got up and 6.30am and ate 2 bits of toast and a cup of tea. Left the flat at 8am and drove as close to the start as possible and then walked to the Red Zone. We walked up a hill and through the park to the start zones and the first thing I realised was the sheer size of the whole event. There were people EVERYWHERE and thousands and thousands of them.

I felt very nervous at this point and had to queue up for the toilets a couple of times. It was a cool morning with the treat of rain. I checked my kit bag into a TNT lorry and went for a wander. I saw a few other WELLCHILD runners and said hello but was on my own the whole time. My cousin, a seasoned Marathon runner had left to head up to Westminster to park up and then over to Docklands to meet the rest of my family.

As the start time of 9.45am came up there was a huge surge towards all the start zones. I was in Red Zone Pen 8. The idea of the Zones and Pens is to group similar speed runners together. So 1 to 10, 1 being the fastest and 10 being the slowest and in fancy dress. A lot of runners obviously lied about their times on application because there were plenty of slower runners who were in fancy dress in the pens in front of me and I spent the first 7 or 8 miles trying to get around them.

A mass event like this has a controlled start so when you see it on the TV and the front runners run off the line on the gun, bear in mind that it can take up to 30 minutes for everyone to get through. It took exactly 16 minutes for me to cross the start line and my marathon officially started at 10.01am.

The first 6 miles where just about settling into the run and warming up. I bailed at about Mile 3 for a quick ‘illegal alfresco wee’, I wasn’t the only one. These were mainly residential areas with people lining the streets, some offering fruit and sweets. Old people in their front gardens with chairs and tables out, music playing loudly and lots of cheering. 

The Cutty Sark was really the first point of the run when I was actually totally blown away by the public support. The crowds started to build from Woolwich Church Street at Mile 4 but when I got to Cutty Sark it was amazing. I was running beside Batman and Robin when a guy with a microphone and a camera crew jumped out and shouted

‘Batman and Robin, BBC! Can we get an interview?’

Batman and Robin stopped and got interviewed, I carried on running. You might have seen me beside them on the TV.

I called my dad as I ran past the 7 Mile marker to let him know where I was because the plan was to see them all at the Tesco at Surrey Quays between Miles 8 and 9. As I ran up Evelyn Street towards the Tesco I saw my daughter on my wife’s shoulders before they saw me! I stopped briefly and gave everyone a kiss and carried on. My wife had made me a big banner on a white roller blind with a great big massive long phrase on it. I didn’t manage to read it at this point.

It was a lovely to see the family at this point and it certainly gave me a boost.  The next big thing to happen on my marathon run was getting to Tower Bridge!

Word cannot describe what it feels like running along Tower Bridge on Marathon day. So I’m not going to try. Just imagine both sides of the bridge lined with people all cheering and shouting, running up Tooley Street and then turning right onto Tower Bridge.  An absolutely incredible feeling.

I felt pretty good at the half way mark and from Mile 13 though to 15 was nice and steady. I remember running past the Gel Stop at 14 miles and finding the tarmac really sticky where all the runners has taken a gel pack and then thrown it. I had a little chuckle to myself at this point. My trainers were making a really funny squelching noise.

Getting on the Isle of Dogs at Mile 15 to 18 was a lovely personal point for me. My cousin, who had run the marathon in 2003 used to live on the Isle of Dogs and I have memories of watching the marathon here and waiting to give him a bag of gel packs as he ran past. The sun was beaming down at this point and as I ran toward Canary Wharf I could see Canada Tower and Citi Bank glistening in the sun.

As I ran through Canary Wharf the crowds swelled again. I’d had a walk around Canary Wharf with my family the previous day looking to buy some sun block and it was practically empty. As I ran though it Miles 18 to 19 the streets where lined deep with people. I high fived Ricky Whittle just as the BBC let him go after an interview.

I looked at my iPhone as I exited Churchill Place and saw a text from my sister, which read ‘ McDonalds Billingsgate’ I called her as I ran down Trafalgar Way and within 2 minutes saw my family again. The massive banner with too many words, my wife, daughter and sister were there. My wife said ‘Read the Banner’ and ‘don’t stop, Richard Branson just ran past’. Confusing messages for a chap who’d been running for 19 miles.

I found out later that my dad was also somewhere at Billingsgate but had run off to try and video Branson in the Butterfly suit, thus missing filming me completely.

Poplar High Street Mile 20 to 22 the Highway was hard. I’d just seen my family again, I knew from Mile 20 to the end I’d be on my own. Mile 21 was probably the ‘Wall’. Not a massive ‘Wall’ however I’d only ever trained up to 21 to 22 miles so this would be the furthest I’d ever run.

I kept looking at my watch and working out my timings, thinking if I could run another 5 miles in 50 minutes, I’d finish in less than 5 hours. My target for the marathon has always been 4hours 30mins.

I was starting to go a little mad at this point. I remember advice my cousin had given me about splashing water on your ears to cool down. I collected a Lucozade Sport and splashed it all over my ears. I realised my mistake and had a sticky face for a while until I picked up water to wash my ears with. I also remember thinking how inconsiderate other runners were when they stopped and walked 2 or 3 side by side in the middle lane when runners like me wanted to get by. I just wanted to shout ‘move aside’.

Maybe my running ‘wall’ was just losing my happy positive thoughts about the day and getting really irritated. I remember still be jostled and having to swerve a lot, even at mile 21.  

What snapped me out of it was catching up with Richard Branson dressed as a Butterfly. The crowd were going wild for him. I was soaking up his ricochets. I ran with him for a bit, managed to take a picture of him on my iPhone. I saw a person handing him something to eat and then someone else handing him a water to sip. The Billionaire Chairman of Virgin with ‘staff’ running with him. Fantastic, what a dude!!!

I suddenly realised if I ran off ahead I’d finish before Branson! So I did. Seeing and running with Richard for a bit really recharged my batteries.

Running along the River Thames from Miles 23 to 25 was hard; I was running at a faster pace. I ran nearer the barriers so more people would shout ‘Go Jay Man’.   My legs and feet were hurting a lot by now. The crowds were amazing. I know it’s a Marathon cliché but it’s so true. They really do motivate you.

My twitter friend @squiffa actually saw me at Mile 24.5 Tweets below:

‘@BubblyNatz I have a lot of admiration for those who did run! Saw @Jayman888 running! It was a kind of tweet up even if he didn't know it!’

 ‘@Jayman888 Well done today! Spotted you running down the Embankment at about 24.5 miles! I am very impressed! Xx’

Head down and sunglasses on running hard! I saw the 26 Mile marker and I knew it was nearly over. I saw the finish line and I pushed my pace to ‘mild sprint’ to the finish!

I toppled over as soon as the medal was hung around my neck.

What an amazing day. I loved every moment and every mile! I’m a marathon runner now! 

I finished the 2010 Virgin London Marathon in 4 hours and 42 Minutes and I’m chuffed to bits with it! I’ve also raised nearly £2000 for Wellchild. Thank you everyone for your support and sponsorship. Thanks to Wellchild for giving me the opportunity to run for you.

Sunday 25^th April 2010 will be a day I’ll remember for the rest of my life.

My Mate is selling his Renault Clio Sport 2.0

I said I'd help my mate.

He's selling his Renault Clio 2.0 Sport. 05 Plate April, Black. MOT of 12 months. 43000 miles, 1 owner. Full Service History. 2 new front tyres. New discs and pads on the front, new pads on the rear. He's getting a company car now. He wants £6500.

If you are interested please contact me via twitter @jayman888 or via a comment on this blog. I'll put you in-touch with my mate.

Cheers

Jay

Raising more money for Wellchild and helping me stop wasting money on gadgets

For those of you who don't know me and are new to this blog here's some background.

I'm running the London Marathon for the first time on April 25th and I'm raising money for Wellchild Sick Children's Charity. At the time of writing this post I've raised £1320.22 so far. Today I was blown away by a single donation from the Company I work for for £250. I work for an outdoor advertising company called Primesight in London. I've also had loads of donations from my Twitter buddies, family and friends over the last few months and the amount keeps going up. I'm humbled at the generosity of everyone who has sponsored me.

Last week, I noticed on my British Gas bill that I had been refunded £250 because I had been overpaying a direct debit for 12 months. The money had been credited to my 'Bills Account'. My first reaction was to start looking around for a new 'gadget' to waste the money on! Those who follow me on Twitter will remember the tweets about buying an iPad, iPhone projector, Sony eReader, New headphones, blah blah blah. All stuff that I don't actually need really.

I've decided to donate the money to my charity but to make it more fun I've had an idea that involves all of you reading this.

I've decided to take my iPhone with me during my run and will try to tweet, post a few tweetpics and also try and upload a couple of audioboos too. All of these will be seen on my twitter timeline.

What I want you to do is to help me get as many followers as possible. I'll set a minimum follower count target of 5000 by 9pm April 24th. I have over 1800 at the moment. If this target is achieved I will not hand my iPhone over to TNT in my secure kit bag on the morning of the Marathon. I'll take it with me and tweet my run. I've tweeted before when I've been running and I know it can be done. I've also used audioboo when I've been drunk so how hard can it be when I'm running?

You don't have to donate any money, all you have to do is retweet the link to this page and get your friends to follow me. ( If you want to donate you can too at www.justgiving.com/jayman888 )

My twitter name is jayman888 and the short link to this page is http://bit.ly/dxdH8Z

I'll tweet this link a few times everyday in the build up so you can retweet. You can always contact me via twitter where I'll be giving regular updates.

I'll follow everyone back who follows me. It'll be a really awesome experience on Marathon Day and I want to share it with you all and raise some money for my charity too. I'm nervous but really looking forward to it.

Look forward to your support.

Jay also known as jayman888

Yep. A 'man bag'.

My new bag



I have a lot of stuff to carry about and I hate having pockets jammed full of keys, an iphone, a work Blackberry, change, wallet, sunglasses, pen, Moleskine, mints, spare contact lenses, eye drops, chewy, a book to read, business cards and a very small foldup umbrella. Oyster card, receipts, memorystick, camera, headphones and iPod.

And all of the above doesn't include my work stuff which is a laptop bag with a bloody shite Dell in it.

I'm sure I'm not the only fella who has to use a bag of some sort everyday. Am I?


-- Post From My iPhone

A very sunny but quite chilly day in April

A sunny, dry and bright day. But wasn't it bloody cold when the wind blew???


-- Post From My iPhone

Bad Design on a cool car

I do love my car but the design of this bit beggars belief. Check out my Coffee, phone charger and media USB port. How close is all?? I haven't had a spillage yet.


-- Post From My iPhone

All you can eat kids funfair

£5 per kid. Loads of kids rides. Unlimited goes. Bargain. However it did rain a little and I had to carry all the bags even though it was my birthday. See below.




-- Post From My iPhone

Work IT equipment is just rubbish

I work from home most of the week so I get a company laptop, access to VPN, email, certain industry programs etc. I've had more down time with my IT than I've had uptime. Dell computers are not famous for making great laptops. They make cheap shit laptops that weight a ton and are not very reliable. So why does my company insist on issuing Dells? Today I was looking at the 'torch' and the 'hourglass' and being paid to do so...


-- Post From My iPhone

Scooters in town

Loads of Scooters invaded the town centre today. However it wasn't like years ago when all the Scooter boys were fighting and shouting and 'young'. This invasion consisted mainly of Mint condition Bikes driven very carefully by 40 to 50 year old men. Old men on old bikes.

-- Post From My iPhone

Me and my London Marathon clothing.

I went for a 21 mile run today. Last long run before the Marathon on 25th. I had to test my Wellchild running vest too. It's pink. Look out for me on the telly.

-- Post From My iPhone

Photo365 Puun! A traditional Chinese way of eating.

Today we ate a traditional Chinese Puun. It's a one pot dish with loads of meat and seafood in it. Served with Rice. It's a traditional village meal with everyone sat around it on a big bench dipping into it with chopsticks. Yummy. Followed by this...





And then some Cupcakes.




-- Post From My iPhone

Photo365 A Day with Thomas

It was cold and even started to sleet a little. We had a lovely 4 hours in Chappel in Essex. My son was asking if the Trains would talk to him. They didn't however the Fat Controller did!!


-- Post From My iPhone

The Fun Button on my car photo365

I've been using the 'sport button' on my car a lot this week. I'm calling it the fun button. Accelerator feels fatter. Ride gets harder and the steering get heavier. The car already drives very well. With the fun button on it just gets better.


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Photo365 Standing Road only

Standing Room only on the Train Home. Good job I can claim this travel back. I'd be super pissed off I had to shell out £47 per day for the joy of standing outside a loo and smelling the breath of people who should visit a dentist!


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