Weekend visit

Mum is over for the weekend to avoid the ancient and ludicrous Twelfth of July marches through central Belfast and as mentioned in the previous post, I needed to collect my repaired Montblanc Meisterstuck 149 Fountain Pen from their boutique in New Bond Street. Therefore, I thought it would be good to combine this collection with a walk around the world famous Bond Street Boutiques and we ended up in John Lewis for a lovely lunch on the 5th floor.

When London's Tube works properly, it is brilliant - unfortunately on Friday it wasn't a great run into central London as there was a "person under a train" at Finchley Road . . . Obviously my sympathies go to the family and ultimately our journey was delayed but not terminated - unlike the poor individual at Finchley Road.

Exceptional service

You hear these stories but they rarely happen to me - except this time . . . My treasured Montblanc Meisterstuck 149 Fountain Pen developed a leak at the start of June - you see a pattern emerging as my previous BIGMac suffered the same fate. As soon as the leak happened, I left the pen into their Bond Street Boutique as I combined this drop off with a meeting in Southwark. Thankfully this problem has a happy ending as I called the Montblanc boutique in Bond Street to see how things were going - especially as they had had the pen for almost four weeks. The good news was that the Repair Dept. had complied a repair quote but the bad news was that this was £202!!! 

Once I had picked myself up from the floor, especially as the original quote was £43, so I asked why so expensive? A further call later and a superb lady at the Boutique had found out the reason for the extra costs. As the pen was over thirty years old the new (required) piston would not fit the existing nib and the Repair Dept. needed to replace (and charge for) a new nib. Thankfully my ally at the Boutique argued that the customer (me) should not have to foot the nib costs just because the pen was "old". They swallowed that and the costs and the final total remained £43 leaving me with a virtually brand new pen - not a bad outcome.

When is a single yellow line not a single yellow line . . .

. . . when that single yellow line is in the London Borough of Camden and on a Sunday afternoon. As the location where I parked in preparation for a wonderful Greek Wedding at All Saints Greek Orthodox Church, Camden Street was deemed in proximity to Camden Market and therefore not free on a Sunday - I received the above PENALTY CHARGE NOTICE. At least one quick phonecall to Camden Council's Parking department clarified the situation and I will not contest the ticket and I will pay without delay before the total rises from £60 to £120 - quite a bargain!