Wednesday 4 January 2012

Thursday 27th October 11

Well a bit of a frustrating day in a way, as I spent quite a long time sorting out my laptop, or trying to... I plugged it in near the WiFi box and plugged in the Ethernet cable, and Ian talked me through how to let the machine complete the process of installing the new Ubuntu version, which had got stuck... possibly because my computer switched itself off because of it's problem wobbly jack-plug.  Anyway, Ian got it back to a working computer, but the plug was so wobbly that I still cannot use it and I messaged Ben to ask if he'd sort it out.  I will pay him handsomely when he fixes it, which is probably just a 20 minute job.

At midday the Yellow Pages guy came back, with his colleague who I think was a more senior chap, and had re-done an advert for me with two versions, neither of which I liked.  I like my existing advert, which looks like a bulls-eye, but I said I was happy for him to tweak it to make it stand out more. They spent quite a long time working out a trial Google Ad Words thing for me, and I was prepared to try a 4 month trial at £39.50 per month, but when it came to the crunch, they asked for my bank account number and I don't pay anything for my Fiddlesticks work from my bank account; I use a dedicated Building Society account, and I do not do any Direct Debits.  I said I'd pay for the full 4 months in advance, by cheque, but they apparently can't accept cheques for Google Ad Words.  I said either they should change the rules or I'd have to put £39.50 from my Building Society into my bank to have the DD go out of my bank, and I wasn't prepared to do that.  So I said scrap the Ad Words idea.  They were here for 2 hours, but eventually left as they couldn't get the form to work that they'd have wanted me to sign.  I didn't want to sign today anyway as I wanted to ask Gill about this cost.  He said he'd call tomorrow but I'm going to ring him and ask that he comes next week.

I popped out to get two cheques made out, one for the glass I put my hand through at the gig in Poppleton (cost me £40), and one for my National Insurance contribution.

I made some soup, out of the pumpkin bits I was given yesterday.  I put in onion, butternut squash, a cooking apple, some carrot, and flavoured it with herbs, Balsamic vinegar and a bit of soy sauce.  I had it ready for when Gill and the boys came back at 7pm.  They were glad I'd done that!

The other annoying or frustrating thing today was that I tried to contact someone who has provisionally booked me to work this Saturday in Ashton-Under-Lyne near Manchester.  I'd rung the number which is in my diary, and got a message through to the answerphone, and he'd rung me and left a very fuzzy message on there, and crucially not left his contact number or email address.  In my message I clearly ask that people leave their phone number if they want me to get back to them.  I phoned the number I have got about 30 times during the day, and each time it was engaged.  When I went out to buy bread, ARGH he phoned and once again didn't leave a contact number.  How incredibly frustrating.  I am available to work on Saturday, but I need to know where it is, what it is, and how much I'm going to get paid.

Gill came back at 7 having had a really good time in Norwich with her sister.  The boys were happy too.  I then went out, at about 7.45, to see my favourite local band The Falling Spikes.  I had a lovely evening, one of the tracks they played had me in tears it was so wonderful.  The band they were supporting weren't nearly as good, for me, and I left halfway through their set.

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