Subtitles!

Carmen was brill, my very first opera, such fun. I kinda mean to google it before going because I didn't have a clue what the story was, I knew it was a gypsy thing, fall in love, fall out of love and someone dies but that was about it.  I suppose you could say this was an official date.  Sounds weird!  I picked him up, I am not ready for him to know where I live just yet, he was very charming. 

Well I forgot to and then kinda ran out of time in my panic to find something to wear, my bed had clothes piled high on it when I came home. About 5 minutes after it started and I was sitting there thinking omg I don't have a clue, not a bloody clue what they are saying and what it going on, I noticed above the stage was a kind of video screen or letter screen with subtitles! YES subtitles. So of course I had a sneaky look up there from time to time trying to act all cool and not move my head so anyone noticed I had to 'read' the opera. But it kinda made the enjoyment a lot better.

:)

A ballet is next on the cards and Les Mis :)

So today sparked off another little consumer drama, que my parents with their faulty bathroom mixer tap. Bathroom fitted in 2000 faulty tap in 2004 replaced with no bother and a new receipt issued to re-establish a new 5 year guarantee. 2009 tap faulty again, lever stiff and won't operate and also chrome tarnished. So plumber came last night, whipped the tap off and Mum and I took it back to the bathroom place today armed with both receipts. The first sales person I approached was too busy to deal with us because he was going for lunch although he sat at his desk for a good 10 or 15 minutes after we arrived. A girl appeared eating a sandwich and I figured she too would be too busy to help and perhaps someone else would come along just as the first sales person had said. We walked around the showroom and eventually I approached sandwich girl and asked if she was on lunch or could possibly help us. After ditching her sandwich in the bowel of her desk she asked what the problem was so I told her, showed her the tap and waited for her response. It was like one of those plumber 'sharp intakes of breath' moments. Oh there isn't anything I can do, they have changed their returns policy now so you will just have to go home and reattach the tap and contact them. Err.... pardon. 'You will need to have the tap refitted and then get someone to come out and see it.' Err... I don't think so, the tap is faulty and it is within its 5 year guarantee and I would like it replaced. She then came off with the ridiculous treatment that the replaced tap would have been guaranteed from the time the bathroom suite was put in. I insisted that it wouldn't and indeed the sales guy at the time had assured me that the guarantee would start from the date I got it replaced. 'Did you get that in writing?' she asked. Err... not in writing but I did get it in type in the form of the printed receipt you have in your hand. FFS!!!! GRRR!!!! She had got my back up good and proper! It was official, I now didn't like her and knew I was dealing with another idiot sales person! So off she scurried with the receipts in hand to seek the advice of someone else, God, The Pope I really didn't care as long as we got a new tap! Back she came and announced that she was going to ring the tap manufacturer direct and see what they said but she didn't think it was going to to be under guarantee. Waffle waffle waffle on the phone, asked for a home number, asked for a postcode and I thought happy days, they are going to send a new one out direct. Alas no it seems they wanted to know the extent of the damage and honed into the fact we said the chrome was tarnished, asked what it was cleaned with and Mum replied just with washing up liquid. Seems the girl at the other end said ohhh well thats your problem then, you can't use washing up liquid on it so that has made your guarantee null and void. Err... I think if you fecking read the guarantee actually you guys recommend washing up fecking liquid to remove stains, you just suggest that abrasive cleaners are not used. So then it seems they want to replace just the lever and not the actual tap but needed a photo of the damage sent before they could process it. Now how the hell do you photograph a stiff lever! Perhaps Mum holding it pulling a face showing how much effort she was needing to put into it with her arthritic riddled fingers! OMG are these people stupid! So sandwich girl duly took a photograph using her iphone and emailed it to them to try to speed things up again. I asked her to cc the email to me and ask them to also do the same, I wanted proof that we had been in before the guarantee ran out. :) Method in my madness :) So I will ring them tomorrow and see what is going to happen. Life, simple? Pah, what fun would there be if it was!

:)