16 December 2011

I received an email yesterday from the Trading Standards supervisor (the first and last, in fact, perhaps he has been reading my blog in which I complained I had not heard from them!). Anyway the long and the short it was that, Chris Missen, the officer dealing with it had certainly been in touch with Dragon and reported back to his supervisor, who wrote to me as follows.

‘As regards the “free servicing” claims; this is something that we are taking up with the company and we will certainly be looking to them to amend their advertising.  They should be making it clear to customers in their advertising that telephone calls will be charged for so that no-one is misled.

Mr. Missen is continuing to liaise with the company in respect of the software package but, as I said to you on the telephone, we have no powers to compel them to resolve the outstanding issues.  I do think we have reached the point where if the system cannot be made to work correctly then you will need to take action against the company through the civil courts. 

I do sincerely hope that the problems can be resolved and the system will then function correctly.  However, I do completely understand your frustration at the time that this is taking and that is why I say now might be the time to force the issue by taking the matter further‘

So far as Dragon are concerned they continue to deny that they received a reply to their e-mail to me 22 November, despite me having forwarded it to them on at least five occasions each time telephoning and asking them to acknowledge receipt. Each time I do this they promise to ring back but never do. If I have got no further by the New Year I think I must seriously consider going to the County Court.

I have now received copies of the reports following my recent quarterly visit to Papworth Hospital and Addenbrookes. Basically Papworth say I am doing well on the nasal ventilation. They noted a greatly elevated blood pressure but do not suggest the reason or what can be done about it. Otherwise a very good report. Addenbrookes, which followed a couple of days later, basically recorded what I tell them but did pick up on the high blood pressure or hypertension, and suggested that my GP repeat the blood pressure reading within the next couple of weeks. They noted that I asked Chris Allen to let me know that he has positively eliminated the possibility that I have multi-focal motor neuropathy (MME) rather than MND. (see 4 December entry) and Chris will report back to me on this. I know I’m clutching at straws but one wants to be absolutely sure. They noted that my speech remained intelligible with the voice quality was hoarse. Apart from that most of the rest of the report was pretty much as before. Basically getting slightly weaker month by month but otherwise no serious changes.

Alice Everard, a good friend of my Alice, came round this afternoon with her lovely dog Amber. ( I do miss having my own dog) We had a very pleasant chat together while Alice slipped out to do something. These little visits are just long enough and serve to break up what might otherwise be a monotonous day. In any case I do enjoy picking up the news of what’s going on outside the bounds of my little domain.

Talking of kind people I completely forgot to mention that my friend Tristan, from the gym, came round last evening and shared a bottle of champagne with me. We were able to get a wheelchair into the breakfast room so I could have a smoke at the same time. It’s almost a year to the day that we did the same thing and the last time Tristan bought two bottles of champagne and I must admit that although I was not drunk I certainly felt a little off after the second bottle

However, the kindness I was referring to was that one of the springs on our garage door broke, a week or so ago, and Tristan very kindly managed to find a brand-new pair of springs exactly matching those on our door, which are at least 50 years old, to my knowledge. Not only did the get them for us but also fitted them. What a kind friend. If we could not have found replacement springs we would probably have had to replace the door, at well over £1000. As they say it’s not who you are but who you know in life that count

 Here is a little story for you that is reminiscent of the time I played the priest in the Faust

at Sadlers Wells (but that’s another story. Click here.