Not gone anywhere yet
not happy …We have, unfortunately, not yet pushed off in Doris. I started getting a sore tooth a couple of days ago and this morning it was pretty unbearable to chew on. My mouth has had more work done on it than an elderly model’s face, so I’m never surprised when something else falls off or breaks. This time it’s a bottom molar (I’ve only got a couple of originals) and it didn’t make any sense to head off when we have a friendly dentist a short walk away. That’s what I thought. I phoned through this morning to be told that I (and then C) were no longer registered – because we hadn’t attended – and they weren’t taking any new NHS patients. Oh dear. Typically, though, and I have done this before, I’d phoned our old dentist in Wells. Twenty minutes later and I had established that our local dentist still loved us and I got an emergency appointment for this afternoon. Half an hour in the chair and I’m sorted (I think), but with some more work to do in March. It is so good to have these people close to.
Doris is packed, by the way, as we were heading off this afternoon to an old friend of C’s in Lincolnshire. In the end we’ve delayed it and we should be leaving a cloud of unburnt diesel behind tomorrow sometime. The good news is she passed her MoT on Monday with no advisories and, all-in-all, she looks in good shape. We now have 62,000 miles on the clock. For a 12 year old van, I think that’s good. What with covid, we’ve only done a couple of thousand miles a year for the last couple. Hopefully we will add to that this year.
packing up DorisI have just finished my Amazon Ads course and I don’t regret it. I currently have 15 ads running in the US and 4 in the UK. The metrics are complicated, but in short I have spent the grand total of $0.26 and failed to sell a book. (That’s much better than spending $26 and not selling a book.) But I do need to increase the ‘clicks’ (and, hence, spend) so I can work out whether or not Unsuspecting Hero is saleable on inspection on the Amazon landing page. I think it must be … I just need to get people there. That’s my job for the next 6 weeks or so. The good news is that I like this. It’s the sort of marketing I can manage. It’s about numbers, which is so much better than the faux engagement which a lot of writers put themselves through on places like Facebook, day-in, day-out. I’m best when I’m not talking to people. I’m sure you agree.
The other major event in our lives was a surprise. We got one of those door-to-door salespeople round last night. She was the second one in recent months telling us her company could fit cavity wall insulation for nothing. I was sceptical, to say the least, but she must have caught me feeling vulnerable and, lo and behold, a decent engineer type bloke arrived on our doorstep at 8.30 this morning. He was youngish, but brilliant, and he drilled some holes in our walls and stuck a camera in. Sure enough we have empty cavities … which need filling – there’s a tooth thing going on here. He then did an EPC inspection and, an hour and a half later, he was on his way with a clear ambition that because we are an all-electric terraced house, the government will pay for the insulation. I have not handed over any bank details and seem very inclined to believe him. How good is that?
Doris in for her MoTFinally … what of His Borisness? Well, it’s going to happen, isn’t it? The young engineer this morning said he thought the man was a joke and needed to go now – which impressed me further. There are too many important things going on … we really don’t need a self-serving idiot in charge, do we?
Anyhow. Stay safe everyone.
