Last weekend I bought a Rocket Book.

This is a reusable notebook with an app that allows uploading details to various locations.

Since then I added a set of index cards.

I have also bought the whiteboard tags.

The following is a sample file scanned.

Of late I have been having problems with a number of service providers. I try to give feedback to allow them to improve.

Barclays have a problem with their online banking – they sometimes drop people from your payee list. This is only meant to happen after 14 months. They dropped my credit card provider from the list and that gets paid every month. Another entry does not seem to be correct having the wrong reference. This dropping payees is listed as a known issue and I was told it may happen again. The online banking site is a bit of a mess – you can’t delete payees yourself.

Direct Line send out generic letters on payment failures and the staff blame it on an “automated system”. This is not acceptable. If you have generic letters make the effort to have suitable generic messages. Post is slow and the problem may have been resolved by the time the letter reaches you.

After cancelling my policy Direct Line sent me a letter offering me the chance to stop the cancel. The date on the letter was one day before the policy was due to stop and it arrived 5 days after I would have been able to do anything. This is pure waste.

I am also concerned about Amazon. I have a parcel that was due to be delivered yesterday that failed to arrive. According to the form it was out for delivery but failed to arrive and is now delayed by a week.

Today I made a start on my greenhouse crops. This time I am trying to propgate tomatos and cucumbers in my greenhouse rather than starting them in the conservatory.

They are in a propgator inside the greenhouse. The greenhouse ranged from 5c to 30c over the last 24 hours. I can’t control this to the recommended 18c.

The UK is currently in a mess.

Brexit is clearly a failure. We have a cost of living crisis.

For bizarre technical reasons the amount paid on a mortgage is not counted towards inflation.
This means that in reaction to a rise in inflation (which hit 10.5% in December 2022) the Bank of England have been reacting by raising interest rates.

This is the only lever that they have to get inflation back down to 2%

The problem is that the economic theories that are being used belong to the 1950’s and 1960’s.
The inflation is not caused by an overactive economy lead by borrowing, this time it is caused by unregulated energy price rises and the damage caused by incompetent Truss administration.

Raising interest rates now makes credit cards more expensive at a time where the majority of the population are being stretched by rising costs.