Every little helps...

Evenin' all.

What with riots, crappy weather and the fact that there is still no F1 for ages, I thought I'd occupy my time usefully, and have therefore written the following letter to Tesco.

Feel my rage...

Dear Customer Services,

I was most chuffed to get a letter from your credit card section recently, with a jolly nice coupon for 650 Clubcard points. Apparently, in order to redeem them, I needed to have my MasterCard scanned at the same time as the coupon. A touch tricky, as I shop online. Handily, you provided a number on the back of the coupon with the message "If you're unable to get this coupon scanned at a Tesco Store please call".

Guess what? I did. There were 4 options on your phone menu. As I didn't want a credit card balance, to pay my credit card, have a query about my credit card, apply for a credit card or, in fact, need anything at all even remotely to do with my credit card, I selected the 4th option - Clubcard points.

Unfortunately, although I was actually calling about Clubcard points, the nice chap who eventually answered first of all suggested that my coupon was out of date (it isn't) and then said I'd called the wrong number, and I needed to speak to the Credit card team. I politely pointed out that, of all the options on the menu, the one saying 'Clubcard points' seemed to be the most logical one to select, but he said I needed to call again and speak to the Credit Card crew. I expect he needed to put his hand up so he could be 'excused' or something, or I was taking up too much time.

So I did call back. And this time I got through to the Credit card team. A nice chap seemed not to know anything about this and then mentioned that he'd need to email the information to a "Specialist". Well, we all like a nice job title don't we? "Specialist" sounds quite cool to me.

And so I thanked him and rang off. 'Jolly good' I thought. Some nice Clubcard points. Every little helps, right? And it only took two phone calls and 20 minutes of my time.

Imagine my delight when I returned home from work the next day to find a message on my answering machine, saying unfortunately I'd need to take the coupon in to the Customer Service desk in my local store.

I don't have a local store. I shop online. Which, if I roll you back in time to the start of this letter, is what I mistakenly though was the whole point on the phone number you helpfully provided.

I'm not old, but I can feel the will to live gently seeping away. Any chance you could give me the points? Pretty please? And if someone has a spare 5 minutes to take a look at the whole process, that'd be really rather nice too.

Yours, in cheery optimism,

grumpyf1

(Rant accompanied by Mike Oldfield's "Let There Be Light".)

Malaysian Grand Prix - Vettel hot, but not bothered

Malaysia. It's always hot, and it always rains. Except the 2nd part is no longer true (unless you count the drizzly bit around lap 14). Saturday's qualifying session had highlighted the fact that Red Bull and McLaren seemed well matched on pace, but also that Ferrari were struggling. Whilst Vettel bagged another pole, followed by Hamilton, Webber and Button, Alonso was only 5th, and Massa 7th, with Nick Heidfeld an excellent 6th on the grid between the two red cars. At this point, I would like to break momentarily for a small rant: How many times do I have to say Heidfeld is good? Why wasn't he given a top drive years ago? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?! ARE YOU BLIND!!!?? Ahem. The Hispanias somehow managed to a) turn up b) remember to bring cars c) get both of them on the track d) actually get both of them within 107%. Pretty remarkable really. Oh, and it didn't rain. Race day looked a more likely candidate for a drop of the wet stuff. The start was exciting, with

I know I'll regret this...

For @Feisty_Onion @BroughtonLass @LizWestmorland Me... before the grumpiness set in. Have a great weekend.

Senna bags Willy drive?

The great thing about F1 rumours is that they change every 5 minutes. Just last week it was looking like Barrichello might be back in at Williams, as new engines, tech staff and a general reshuffle would mean they needed someone who actually knew what they were doing in an F1 car. Which rules out Maldonado, obviously. Now it looks like Senna might be about to get a seat with the team where his Uncle lost his life. I'm sure Bruno's mum must be delighted. I don't hold with all this superstitious mumbo-jumbo though, and with the extraordinary level of safety in modern F1 cars, Bruno should be pretty safe. There is one significant problem with Williams signing him though - and this is going to be a bit unpopular I suspect - Bruno isn't very good. Yes, he put in a couple of reasonable performances with Renault, but Nick Heidfeld (ah... Nick and his lovely beard...) would have been able to do likewise, has he not been dropped. And then they dropped Senna too. Thi

grumpyf1

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