Rambolic

I was reminded today of an incident a few years back. I can’t remember what reminded me of it now… but anyway.

A few years ago I used to spend a lot more time online than I do now (that’s some mean feat). The annoying thing was that in those days we didn’t have ADSL or cable, so the majority of us just used to pay for an 0800 freephone number to connect, which used to disconnect every two hours to free the lines during busy periods to let other people online.

I used to meet some regular people on AOL in chat rooms and such. One day I was talking to a guy I knew called Peter who lived fairly local, though neither of us knew exactly where the other lived – we never exchanged addresses. He asked how I was one day and I said I was okay, etc. I’d just accidentally cut myself and added something like “well, I’d be better if this bleeding would stop!” At that opportune moment my ISP disconnected me and I couldn’t get back online due to it being peak hours. I gave up in the end and switched on my TV.

I forgot all about speaking to Peter when about 10 mins later I had someone ferociously knocking on the door. I got up and answered the door to find two police officers, who checked my name and asking how I was. I told them I was fine, but they were persistently asking “are you sure??” etc, etc… Eventually they left and I couldn’t figure out why.

Turns out Peter had thought I was bleeding to death and called the police!! God knows how they found out where I lived and got there within 10 mins, but it was pretty damn good going. Anyway, I guess it half shows how people can mistake your context online, and also that people care even though you may not know them ‘that’ well.

Well, tonight I wasted a few hours with my mate playing guitar, eating pizza and messing about on the xbox. Very productive. I might go out and buy HMV tomorrow – I’ve got enough vouchers to buy a branch or two. Yesterday I spent most of the day at my parents’ house with my Grandma and auntie. My auntie’s all right… she means well, but she’s hard work sometimes. She still doesn’t know the name of my girlfriend after five years of us being together. She put “Alan and Racal” on our card / She was telling everybody that I’d told her that we were getting married in spring. She’s a bit odd like that. Her son, my cousin, is apparently in a secure medical unit for reasons we know not. He’s in and out of prison all the time. I try to distance myself from him, and have succeeded – I haven’t seen him in about 15 years. He writes now and again but we tend to ignore him as it seems to be all favours and money he wants. He once told a lawyer he lived at our house. I’m glad I don’t live there anymore – God knows who could turn up.

Speaking of lawyery types, I’m due in court soon. Date tbc. It seems that the defendant in the car accident case could have gone back on his original statement and decided that he’s not admitting liability. Fuck knows on what grounds. I’ve had to give another statement of something that happened nearly two years ago now. Fucking sick of the whole thing now.

More legal stuff… About six or seven years ago I ran a website for Leafeater. They supported Terrorvision on a couple of tours. Anyway, Terrorvision’s singer was mates with a guy who owned an internet provider, Legend Internet. This guy offered to give us free webspace, but we had to pay for the domain name, leafeater.com. In 2001 the band split, and I contacted Legend to cancel the domain, which they didn’t. I kept getting bills despite not being the billing contact, and each time I contacted them. Invoices turned into final demands, then eventually I moved.

In the mean time the guy I knew sold Legend Internet to Business Serve who then rebranded themselves as Legend Communications. When they did this they began to chase up all the old debters… me included it seemed. They sent me a letter with “IMPENDING COURT ACTION” in bold red lettering on the envelope. I wrote to them, then again, and again… No response, so eventually I bundled all the letters together and threatened them with legal action and they finally responded saying they’d drop the charge. I didn’t hear anything after that.

Well, that was until about three weeks ago when another letter fell upon my parents’ doormat, this time from 1st Credit, a debt collection agency. I tried contacting Legend again – no response. Calling didn’t get through to anybody. I looked on their website and it looks like they’ve been bought by Demon/Thus, one of the biggest ISPs in the country. After a couple of weeks of trying to get through to Legend I got another letter from 1st Credit, advising of legal action if I didn’t pay within 7 days. I contacted 1st Credit who gave me a number for Legend Internet/Communications/Demon/whoever they are this week. They I told them the whole story, and the guy said that there were notes on my account that reflected everything I’d just said. Why the hell was it passed to a debt collector then?! Apparently my account hadn’t been closed down properly.

Anyway, I’m hoping that’s just about the end of it now. I need to make a couple more phone calls to make sure everything’s dealt with. I wouldn’t mind, but I’ve been trying to order a new phone but it keeps failing the credit checks as my credit’s fooked now. Hey well.

Trials and tribulations… Bah…

Nobody would believe me! As per usual I performed the British male tradition of shopping on Christmas Eve. Everybody told me not to bother because I’d never be able to park, and wouldn’t be able to move for people. I argued that for that exact reason nobody would go and it’d be dead. I was right.

I went against all my principles though and bought tickets from Jumbo Records. The other year I had a massive argument in the store with their owner because she sent 3 tickets for 3 Colours Red instead of 2, and wouldn’t refund. Alas, she did in the end… took a lot of arguing on my part though.

Anyway, I’m off to get ready to go out tonight – got an important engagement with the Gasworks for a night of rawk. Dunno whether to get the bus or drive – no idea what the buses are doing today.

I wasn’t drunk… much… honest.

CCL Christmas Party 2006