Hola, apologies for this late post but we would like to say THANK YOU to the following people who very kindly donated raffle prizes for last Saturdays draw at FunFest: Albox Insurance, Charlotte Ager and Adam Cullen, Simply Art Ceramics, Amanda Venn, Bar Lepanto, The Eatery, Sarah Mapstead, JJ's Candy Shack, Gladrags, Hilary Shand, Shampooch, Sue Brigden, Casa Colarinda, Sarah Elder, Josie Ashton-Mosley, Jean Robson. We had a total of 21 smashing prizes thanks to you guys ?

Jos Biggs has had a spot of bother with Barclays Bank !!

I have a little rainy-day pittance in Barclays - or I did have, until they got all hoity-toity and told me that I lived in Spain, so I must take my money elsewhere, or they would ‘keep it in a secure account.’

Pffff! Yeah!

The logic behind this thinking escapes me; I thought banks liked you to give them your money, so that they could pretend to look after it for you.

So when I was in England it seemed an ideal opportunity to call their bluff and move my modest account to Banco Santander. Banco Santander has an English presence, so that should be easy.

I repeat Pfff! Yeah!

I also had some old twenties to change, so my niece and I walked innocently into Barclays Ipswich, approached what we considered the appropriate counter and proffered the soon-to-be out of date twenties. 

‘You can’t change them here.’

Deep sigh. Change tactics and counter.

‘I want to put these twenties into my account.’

Done. While I was on a winning streak I then withdrew them. 

Ha!!  

‘I want to transfer my account.’

‘You’ll have to see Laura. Come back in 45 minutes.’

Fortunately Ipswich has shops, so we came back in 45 minutes, and sat waiting for Laura for a further 45 minutes.

The afternoon then began to blur into a sort of stagnant haze.

This should be plain sailing. We had the appropriate counter, knew the answers to the appropriate security questions, but Barclays, having told me to move my money, was going to make it well nigh impossible for me to do that.

Four times did the unfortunate Laura attempt to transfer my account from Barclays to Santander, and four times she failed. I’m not clear as to whether Barclays wouldn’t let it go, or Santander wouldn’t let it come, but the result was the same; both Banks had dug their metaphorical heels in, and the account remained where it was.

In desperation Laura begged help from Sue, older and presumably more savvy to the peccadillos of banks in general, and Barclays in particular. 

After failing to negotiate the transfer in a straightforward manner Sue played dirty - and transferred my money instead to an English HSBC account. She did this quickly, before either Banks got wind of what she was up to and could put financial spanners in the works.

That’s two and a half hours of my life I’m never going to get back! In future I’m going to keep my money under the mattress - it’ll be just as safe, and I can get hold of it whenever I want!

We need to remind those people who smoke inside vehicles that throwing a cigarette butt from a vehicle, it is punished with a 500euros and the loss of 4 points.

Do you think is an expensive fine?

...and if we tell you that sometimes we have to close the motorway and the firefighters have to work during hours to extinguish the fire AND many families miss their flights. Is it expensive or cheap for the person who caused the fire?

Please think twice before doing it.

Thanks