Do Banks Design Systems To Trap Us Into Extra Payments?

Twice now in the last three months, I’ve been late with credit card payments.  Nothing serious, but I got an extra charge of £12.00. I think it happened, as did the other one, because I tend to pay my credit cards all at the same time at the end of the month, when my American Express Card comes in and I’ve just had my pension payment.

So as I was flush at that time, I paid off most of the debt on the card. But apparently, I paid too early in the last accounting period or something.

The last time, it happened on another card, they phoned me to say why hadn’t I paid.  When I said what about the extra payment they gave it back.

But how many of us, get caught out by rules, that need to be read by a lawyer with a fine tooth comb?

What would help, would be the ability to define your payment date on your credit card. I seem to remember doing this many years in the past. Zopa incidentally, allows this when you borrow and even allows you to change the date, due to a change of circumstances.

In some ways I’m getting my own back.  For travel, hotels and large purchases, I now use my American Express card and for small ones, I now use cash. The problem is Waitrose, where their self-service tills don’t take cash. Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury, who both have better tills, do.

They Can’t Tell Sheep From Goats

The Sunday Times is reporting that goats meat has been found in some lamb products.

This doesn’t strike me as serious as the horsemeat scandal, but yet again, it shows the importance of knowing where food has come from.

I’m cooking some pork for my lunch and will be particular, where I buy it from. It will probably be Waitrose, but on other days it could be Marks and Spencer or a proper butchers, like the one on the Essex Road.

If you pay a crap price for food, you probably get what you deserve.

The First Asparagus Of Summer

I bought some fresh English asparagus yesterday in Waitrose.

I just fried it in a little olive oil, with some seasoning for five minutes.  It was delicious.

It’s certainly one of those ‘posh’ foods worth eating!

Waitrose ‘Can Add 50 % To The Price Of Your Home’

The Standard also reports this.

I’ve got three within a simple bus ride, but I have a feeling that one will turn up nearer in the next couple of years.

 

A Small Bottle And Glass Of Wine

I like a nice glass of wine, but when I’m at home, I don’t like opening a new bottle, as by the time I get round to another glass, it’s gone off.

So I thought, I’d give this very small bottle from Waitrose a try.

A Small Bottle And Glass Of Wine

It wasn’t that bad! But then small bottles of wine are generally inferior to their bigger cousins.

Gluten Free Drinks At Waitrose In Canary Wharf

I was surprised that there was no gluten-free beer at Waitrose in Canary Wharf, but there was a new variety of Aspall’s cyder, I’d not seen before called Lady Jennifer

The Wheatsheaf, Enfield Chase

The Wheatsheaf, by Enfield Chase station, is another pub, where I used to drink with my mate, Pete, like the Warwick in New Barnet.

The Wheatsheaf, Enfield Chase

Both these pubs were on the 107 bus route from where we lived at Oakwood.

If I’d walked back up the hill in the 1960s, I would have seen the local printing firm of Bennett and Starling, who were one of my father’s competitors. The site is now a littleWaitrose and some housing.

Goats Cheese Closes Tunnel

This story from Norway, could almost be read as a classic spoof, like London bus found on the Moon from the Daily Sport. This is the first three paragraphs.

A road tunnel in Norway has been closed – by a lorry-load of burning cheese.

About 27 tonnes of caramelised brown goat cheese – a delicacy known as Brunost – caught light as it was being driven through the Brattli Tunnel at Tysfjord, northern Norway, last week.

The fire raged for five days and smouldering toxic gases were slowing the recovery operation, officials said.

I wonder if Waitrose stocks this cheese? Brunost sounds so dangerous, that it could be used as a substitute for Semtex.

It’s Burgers Tonight!

After the horseburger scare, I thought I’d have burgers tonight.

It’s Burgers Tonight!

Those in Waitrose, had another pollutant in them; gluten. So as you can see, I got these next door in Marks and Spencer. Note the gluten-free label on the front of the packet where it should be.

Incidentally, I met a couple of ladies, who were buying burgers for their families’ suppers.  Perhaps the publicity had jogged their minds, that they hadn’t had them recently? But then we weren’t buying low-cost and/or low quality burgers.

Waitrose’s Fish Pies

I find them very confusing and I’ve written to the company.

I am a coeliac and some of your pies have gluten and some don’t. I of course must have the gluten-free ones.

This means that when I want a fish pie, I have to turn it upside down to check. The only ones I can eat are the Fish Pie for One in, I think, the Essentials range.

Perhaps a gluten-free symbol on the front would be the best solution.

In fact your ready meals puzzle me, as some that when I cook a similar dish from scratch don’t have gluten.  But yours do!

I have been looked at rather strangely by some of your staff, as I go through all the meals looking for the gluten-free ones.

I shall be interested to see what they say.