Mesh Saga and a visit to the Seaside

Well here we go, an update on the Mesh Saga, hopefully one of the last except for my jubilantly announcing the return of it fully restored. I should be so lucky, and "certainly am not holding my breath" in anticipation. The yellow label for returning it back to base turned up on Saturday with a letter of instructions. It did state that if I didn't have the original box to make sure that it was packaged with suitable materials to adequately protect it in Transit.

After I had tried in vain to get a box big enough I packed it first with a layer or two of bubble wrap, then a layer of corrugated packing and finally with brown parcel paper, sticking each layer down with miles of tape , and finally outside one with this tape shouting: FRAGILE all over.

So now its out of my hands the courier is coming on Wednesday 23rd, I did tell them I didn't have a box, and they said not to worry they might provide one. Well we'll see. Once it arrives it was stated that the turn around time is 5 days, but considering I don't suppose they will get it till Thursday and there is a Bank holiday Monday at the weekend I don't expect it back till late next week. Fingers crossed.

After all this gloom and misery on the next really lovely sunny day we decided to go to the seaside. The Jellies love to go there and John loves going in the Stag, so here we are: us in the front and the Jellies in the back.

They are getting used to travelling this way,

in particular Jed who loves to be slightly adventurous;

they are however firmly attached to a special split lead held by me. But you can imagine the impact they make as we travel along. We had a lovely time at the beach, the tide was out and there were miles and miles of sand for them to rush about in. In the dunes there were quite a few "meerkats" those blokes who like to sun themselfs in the nude. The Jellies love to rush into their nest and lick them all over. Don't think the meerkats are too happy, but that is the chance they have to take.

Right this is it, am signing off, have to go and feed the Jellies and also get our dinner ready, we are having roast chicken, recipe of Jamie Oliver, it has a lemon pushed up its bum. He says this is his favourite way of cooking a chicken so I thought I would give it a try.

Continuation of the Mesh Saga

the most "unfriendly one"

Latest update, it is now 18th of May:

I have just been on to Mesh and finally got the correct phone# and spoke to a proper english speaking bod, who had all the details of what happened at his finger tips, well on his screen, he knew exactly what had happened and on what date and intimated that they would certainly put things right back at their repair centre.

He also assured me that the labels had been sent on Wednesday and I should have them today or tomorrow. Advised me to pack the tower as firmly as possible with tape and bubblewrap and corrugated paper something I which I have done. I must say he sounded very reasuring and has somewhat restored (slightly) my faith in them. But only slightly; and am not at all sure if I go for them again. And here was about to write a real blast of a letter to the managing director about my complaints. I might still do that if necessary! But have taken Mary's comment on board re this. Although I was also going to send a copy of this letter to the ComputerActive magazine who might look into it and get them to pull their "stoppers out". They are good at that, and as they were the ones on whose recommendation I purchased the Mesh I feel they should.

Thats it for now, what this space!

The unbelievable Saga of Mesh

Well here we go again, hopefully no fax arrives as then I get cut off and lose everything I have just written. Any way after the engineer left with the "moribund" motherboard I eagerly awaited notification as to when he would return, that took another two weeks with a multitude of phone calls. When you call a big company in the UK you get: "your call is important to us" and a lot of music to entertain you while you await for someone to come and talk to you. Also many of theoperators are Indian whose english isn't of the best, or maybe it is my fault but I find them difficult to understand and have to ask them to repeat themselves several times. And the one time when I did get and english bod he stammered so badly that it was almost worse.

I was assured that they hadn't forgotten and that the order would go out any minute. This took nearly 3 weeks till the engineer came again, by now Warren & I are old friends and as you all can imagine, I welcomed him with open arms. June also came as soon as Ellie her poodle returned from the hairdresser. Meanwhile Warren opened the box in which all the new parts had come. This comes sealed and he can only open it in front of the customer. He soon had the PC open, took out all the old parts except the hard drive, for which I was relieved as I had been unable to copy the iTunes I had on it. And so he went to work, only found that the CPU processor wasn't included and nothing would work. Can you believe this? I can't, I was completely gobsmacked, shell-shocked and speechless. Warren suggested that we contact Mesh immediately which June very kindly did for me as I was unable to cope. At best I'm not too good anyway on the phone. After a lot of explaining and to-ing and fro-ing they stated that it would be best and quickest to send the PC back to base so they can sort it out. I wasn't too happy about this especially as I no longer have the box it came in, having thought that in view of having a on-site warranty for 2 years it would be unecessary. It never is. Moral of the story: keep the box what ever you do even if you have to under the bed.

So now I am awaiting the labels, must pack the tower in the box I managed to scrounge. They did say that upon receiving the PC it would take a 5 days turnabout. Do I believe that or not?

Well what am I to do. If I had opted to wait for Warren again, it probably would be a further 3 weeks with no guarantee that the right components would turn up.

One thing I am quite sure of, it will be a long time before I buy a Mesh again. And am thinking of writing a blast and sending it to the Managing Director. To let him know my love affair with Mesh is over.

It will be a Dell next time.

Shaun's celebrations for his 12th

Sorry Guys

that it has been such a while but am still struggling with the Mesh breakdown. I took masses of photos on Sunday 6th when we were up in St Albans to celebrate Shaun's 12th birthday. We set off quite in time to arrive at 12 o'clock having fitted in a walk for the Jellies on the way. The place we chose was crawling with dog walkers and their pooches, so the Jellies had a good time meeting new friends. Nellie also jumped up at me which I didn't appreciate as I was wearing cream trousers. Not a good choice when walking dogs. But luckily we have had very little rain so it wasn't yet muddy.

Anyway we had nearly arrived at 15 Selby Avenue when my phone rang and it was Paul wanting to know where we were. Laughter when I told him in Chiswell Green, as it turned out they were much further away from visiting Darra where they been on Saturday. So John took the Jellies for another run in a field south of the cathedral and soon we were on our way, arriving almost simultaneously at #15. Oh for the joys of mobiles.

Shaun looked and acted very grown up, never queried about presents, not like yester years. His main present had been a basketball stand and net, and he and Caitlin were ever so good at playing basketball. I have a nice little video clip but can't post this on the blog, but will work on that in the future. He is very much into basket ball and his other present from his Opa and Oma as well as from the Demetre clan was Laker team out fit, shorts and top plus a pennant. Unfortunately the shorts are for the 'away' kit and not for the 'home' team. When louise and I purchased these did we know that there was such a thing? Nobody told us at the sports shop; but Shaun knew alright. hopefully we can get the 'home' shorts to him soon. But on the whole he is very pleased with it all, especially as it is Bryant's top his favourite player on the Laker team. For those who are not in the know:the Laker team is the Los Angeles basketball team. And as usual Shaun knows everything that is to be known about basketball and especially this team; just as he does about football. he is hoping that he might be selected for the school basketball team next September, hence all the practising.

here is Shaun having his birthday cake, a donut with a candle on. actually he had TWO donuts. We had a lovely lunch which was much enjoyed by everyone.

And after that we went to the park with the Jellies who ran about after the ball or running up to those people brave enough to sit down on the ground and licked them all over. Luckily most people fall in love with them and don't seem to mind.

And here are Caitlin and Oma signing off.

Till the next time.