Amazon, HMRC, and strange Russian ladies

Today has been a bit of a weird day. And it isn’t over yet.

I had two people I needed to call, Amazon, and the HMRC.

As you might remember (or scroll down and read below), I made an order off Amazon.co.uk for some books. I got one (State and Revolution) through the post a while back, but I was still waiting for the rest of the order. Now, it isn’t easy phoning Amazon, you have to submit a phone number, and they call you. Nice.

I spoke to a charming Irish bloke who phoned the couriers to ask where my package was. For some reason, it was dropped off with a neighbour (I’ve been in all day!). But that was sorted.

And then, I had to call the HMRC.

For those of you who don’t know, I’m in the middle of a tax rebate claim. The paperwork was sent to Manchester, and then, for some reason, sent to Devon. So now I’m waiting and waiting, and, quite frankly, I’m rather impatient.

But the woman I spoke to was unrepentent. There was nothing she could (or rather, would) do for me. Even though I’ve done everything that was asked of me. But no, there was no way of speeding things up. They are still dealing with correspondence from the 26th of May.

They are taking the urine. Seriously.

And I got this in my inbox, in response to an ad I placed on Gumtree.com. This was the body of the email. Verbatim.

[email removed]
Hello my new friend! My name Anastasia. I live in Russia. I saw your structure in
agency on which it has been registered today in the morning. Now I have come from my
work and have decided to write to you. I work as the cook. I very well prepare. To
this I was learned by my grandfather when I was still the young girl. To me of 30
years mine birthday on December, 31, in day ” New year ” I hope you know such
holiday.
Well I would like that you have written to me to the answer. And I with impatience
shall wait it.
My mail [email removed]
Write.

Not that I’m laughing at her English (it’s certainly better than my Russian), but she’s 30, and Russian. Either would have been an obsticle to matrimonial bliss, the two combined make it very difficult indeed.

Not my day today, is it?

The strange world of South West Trains

I was coming home from the Permanent Revolution meeting (more about that later) and I realised: SWT is a weird and wonderful world.

On the way up, I noticed that someone had left an unopened copy of Sugar magazine. A brief look around amongst the suits later, it still remained unclaimed, even with the free Boxfresh bikini that came with it. It somewhat made up for the train being 15 mins late.

But on the way back, I saw the most perculiar thing. I saw a silver bug. No, really. It was SILVER. Like, shiny silver.

I took some photos with my camera phone, and I’ll upload them here.

Anyway, the PR meeting was interesting. I’ve had some of my fear elayed, but I’m still hedging my bets and I’m not joining. Their founding conference is this weekend but I won’t be able to go. But I’ll certainly keep a tab on things.