Impressed

Yes … I am impressed. Someone tried to use my details to make a purchase , but Barclays were on it straight away, within minutes of the attempt. I was impressed.

Another good sloping sleep, no headache and an early wake up around 05.00. That gave me time to consider booking a swim. So I did. At Didcot at 07.00.
A horrible screechy noise penetrated my ear drums … a screech every few seconds. Sharp – like chalk on a blackboard. Remember those? it was of course the smoke alarm.

A little flexing preceded it. It has been so dry lately that the hedgerows and road borders are looking tired and desiccated and not as pretty as a week or two ago. It was still a beautiful drive. Some crops are already developing a golden hue .

My swim was very pleasant – I had used my dry-robe again so that I could shower at home. Despite my, now – wet-robe garb, I called in at Savages to purchase some fresh fruit. Once home, I unpacked my purchases and prepared some fruit went and showered and sat down. For a little p and q.

Then the messages started – texts/ phone calls from Barclays about the possibility of a particular purchase being fraudulent, using my card details. And I was left with a number to ring. Nervous, in case, this itself was a scam, and I was about to be taken to the cleaners, I found and rang the Barclays main fraud numbers and the nice lady confirmed that the other messages were genuine.

So the fraudulent purchase (£26.00 approx, but was probably a test case) has been stopped. I was puzzled as to how the bank could have got onto it so quickly. My purchase of fruit was at 9.15 and I had spent 15-20 minutes driving home. The fraud attempt was timed at 09.40 . The nice lady explained that they check IP addresses amongst other things and this purchase was highlighted because of a different IP address.

So I now have a new card coming by snail mail , but it is already visible on the Barclays App and in my wallet and I have already used it for an Apple purchase this evening. Technology is amazing.

Well done Barclays.
All that took a while.

The next 90+ minutes was spent ‘chat botting’ and then agent texting with Vodafone. This was because my contract had run out and I was about to be charged vast sums. I had to state, rather firmly, that I wanted to deal with a real person, which I did in the end. Via text. He looked at my usage and has set me up with a new sim only contract which should merge seamlessly with the last one. At around £40 per month less. I now own my phone. of course we are disadvantaged re Roaming, now that we are not in the EU. Thank you all you very stupid people who voted for this mess we are now in.

So, a lovely sunny morning escaped my attention. Frustrating but positive outcomes. And the Vodafone invisible man was helpful too.

The day became very very hot. Not a great time of day to walk a dog. Heidi agreed.

We took her to the dog ponds at Greenham in the early evening, and by then, a faint breeze was stirring the air. Various dogs were having enormous fun retrieving things from the doggy ponds. H sat and watched the proceedings. But, hey she was wet enough anyway from her paddles.

We returned home with chinese take away from the best ever chinese take away shop. Their offerings burst with freshly chopped veg. The equivalent at Goring gives half full pots of little appeal. With virtually no veg, once was more than enough.
It was quite late when we arrived home. After 20.00.
It was a pleasant thing to do on a hot evening.

Thought for the Day