CAT | Ian Sweeney
Today I attended the funeral of Richard Greenough, who sadly passed away on 11 August, 2010.
Richard was born in 1922.
Richard’s career is well documented elsewhere, however it is also worth mentioning that Richard was a longstanding member of the Gusto Dining Club, and that he attended a number of naturist groups.
Richard spent his final few months in Denville Hall.
The introductory music at the funeral service was the overture from ‘Gypsy‘. The service was conducted by a Humanist Minister.
The readings were ‘Prospero’s Farewell’ from ‘The Tempest’ by William Shakespeare, and ‘If I Should Go‘ by Joyce Grenfell.
There was reflective music from ‘The Finale’ of ‘Swan Lake’ by Tchaikovsky.
The closing music was ‘There’s No Business Like Show Business’ sung by Ethel Mermon..
Patrick, ex-lodger and friend, contacted me yesterday suggesting that we should go along to ‘An Evening With Tony Benn’ at Cadogan Hall as he had free tickets. I said yes, we went, and it was OK.
Afterwards we went for meal in a Portuguese restaurant in Vauxhall, which is where Patrick lives with his partner Martin, and which is only one tube stop away from Stockwell, where I have a house in London.
After the meal, about eleven thirty, we parted company; they went one way and I went another.
At 5:33 this morning Patrick sent me an email that said: “Martin and I were attacked by a gang of ~8 black kids just after saying goodbye to you – just by the playground.
Lost our two iPhones. Martin also lost house keys and wallet.
Both of us got kicked & punched in face/head/back. Martin’s face looks pretty nasty at the moment .. mine’s sore and bruised.
Anyway, just got home from Police & A&E so going to bed now!”.
I’m not happy. On Tueday this week my solicitor told me that I could complete on my new home tomorrow, Friday 27th November. I’ve already spashed out on a hire car to take me and my worldly goods to Liverpool on the assumption that I move into my new home on Friday. I had £x set aside in my internet account and £y set aside in my offshore private bank account, but only a few days to get the funds transferred to the solicitor’s client account.
I went online on the Tuesday morning and tried to initiate an instant transfer. That was not possible as the internet account has a transfer limit of £10,000 per day. Instead I was asked to initiate the transfer by telephone. I phoned and went through all of the details. At the end of the call they told me that they would have to call me back on my Stockwell landline number to confirm the transfer. I’m in Stevenage I told them. Go to your local branch they told me. There is no branch in Stevenage I told them. Nothing I can do for you they told me. End of call. I went down to London and initiated the transfer from the branch in Victoria. However, the transfer would not go through until the following day, Wednesday, because it was after 11 o’clock by the time I got to the bank.
That same morning I’d emailed my account manager in the offshore bank asking him to start the transfer. I’ve not had any response from him yet! That afternoon I logged into their online service and sent an email to the bank admin people making the same request. Then I picked up the phone just to be on the safe side. I was told that the bank cannot accept my transfer intructions by email, phone, or fax because I’d not previously set up a mandate to do so. He promised to email me the relevant mandate forms. He sent an email with no forms attached. I replied asking again for the forms. Time passed. I phoned and was told that he’d gone for a long late lunch. By the time I’d received the email with the forms I’d missed the last post to send them back.
On the Wednesday morning, yesterday, I sent the mandates to the bank using the Post Office special delivery service which guarantees delivery by 9am the following day. The service cost £10.95
I called the bank at 10:30 this morning to check that they’d received my instructions and made the transfer because I know that the CHAPS deadline is 11am. They hadn’t received my letter.
I called the Post Office at 11 o’clock today and they confirmed that the letter has not yet been delivered. She cheerfully told me that is should be there by 9am tomorrow, and that if I call them after it has eventually been delivered then I will entitled to a refund of my £10.95
If the letter arrives tomorrow the CHAPS transfer will not get the funds into the solicitors’s client account before 2pm, possibly 4pm.
I won’t get they keys until the funds have been transferred from my solicitor’s account to the seller’s (solicitor’s?) account. If the funds are not in my solicitor’s client account on time then I won’t get the keys tomorrow.
Laptop updated to Windows 7
Should I buy one of these:
I’m after 2 bedrooms, less than £110,000, near to L1 6AA
I’ve just installed the ‘Sociable’ plugin for WordPress
Now I have a Gravatar avatar.
I’ve just installed the ‘All In One SEO Pack’ plugin for WordPress.
I live in Abu Dhabi. None of the radio stations here really appeal to me and neither do any of the available TV packages. I download some podcasts from BBC Radio 4 using iTunes but I could do with a few more podcasts for some background noise in this quiet little flat of mine. What’s your favourite podcast?
