Monthly Archives: August 2010

CSA, Podcasts

CSA want an interview, but won’t speak to me

7 Comments

I received a letter this morning from the CSA asking me to attend an interview next week at the local job centre. This could be a problem, because I work and can’t attend at such short notice. I called the number on the letter and spoke to a woman, in Chester. When I gave my name she immediately knew who I was and told me she couldn’t speak to me, as I was to be contacted by letter only, and then she hung up on me.

What should I do now? I can’t attend the interview next Thursday as I’ll be in work, unless I manage to move some days around at very short notice. Even if I send a letter back to the CSA (as the woman said I should do) I can’t print one and send it until Monday when I’m next in the office, so they won’t get that until Wednesday, and the interview is Thursday!

Anyhow – listen to the call and see what you think.

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Complaints, General

Quad biking in Manchester

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Now before I start complaining about this, I should first point out that I have been quad biking. It was an immense amount of fun, and was very exciting. However, due to my height (and particularly long thighs) every time I hit a hard right my leg would nudge the throttle and I would shoot off at full speed towards the apex of the bend… most exciting indeed.

However, this was at Centre Parcs, on a quad biking course and under tuition. Quad bikes, by their very nature, are for driving around on uneven surfaces, over fields and up steep slopes. They are not for driving around the roads of Manchester – which is where a lot of second hand quad bikes, bought cheaply, seem to be driven.

For some reason, the road outside my house (which is relatively long and containing a few speed bumps, or ‘hazards’) is very popular with local quad bikers. They derive immense pleasure from driving up and down the road, at full pelt, past my window when I’m trying to work, and it does nothing for the concentration.

I’m all for quad biking, and would love to do it again. Heck, if I lived in a house with a lot of land, or near some fields (as I did in Wales) I might even consider buying a used quad bike myself, but I don’t… I live in Manchester, near the M56. This is not prime quad biking territory, but someone should tell that to the locals.