13.03.2023 Wet and windy!

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 Monday 13th 6C/43F. Up at 5am. Having ridiculous, never ending nightmares involving my wife. I'll probably go back to bed later.

 6-7.30. Bed! That worked. I can now report the weather: Heavy overcast, gales and raining. Repeat as necessary. Milder temperatures, nudging 9C after 10am but very wet. Blowing all day. With gusts up to 23m/s [52mph] from the SW later. The house is exposed to winds from the entire southern quadrant. Recent storms went unnoticed. Thanks to a shelter belt of trees to the west. It could get noisy this time! 

 8.00 I am wondering if I should go for a walk. Undo some of the usual aches and pains. There is a drier window after lunch. Though the wind will already have picked up by then. I could make myself water-resistant. No. There might be another, smaller window later.

 Thanks to the stove and countless logs it has remained comfortably warm upstairs overnight. 20C or 68F. Downstairs is much cooler this morning at only 15C or 60F. So I have had to light the stove anyway.

  It never rains but it pours! Two of the ABUS locks I ordered are not available. Despite being shown as having stock at the dealers. They have no idea when they will have stock again. At least I will have the longer Granite U-lock for my e-Bike security. Now I have to find stock of the short U-lock and the chain. So much for sales websites claiming stock. Pricerunner was still showing stock for firms which had none. So much for Pricerunner. Remote stock and arbitrary delivery dates is NOT IN STOCK! Fraud is a good word for it. Obtaining orders under false pretenses. Is another description for the behavior of these box pushing, online cowboys.

 Luckily I was able to source all three items online. Confirming actual stock by phone in each case. All three were priced at a discount too.

 It gets worse! I requested a phone call from my insurance company last week. This is a standard service. No call came. Despite their empty promises, last week. My insurance company still cannot be sure when I will have proof of 3rd party insurance cover. To allow me to legally ride my new e-bike on the roads. Two to three days, from today, is their best guess. So I am likely to have had my bike for a whole week before I can legally ride it on the road. 

 £950 [equivalent] per year for comprehensive cover? I already have car and contents insurance with them. So they can hardly fail to have all my details and claims history going back over 25 years or more. Nice work if you can get it! 

 16.00 9C/48F It is blowing hard [gusting to 25m/s] with driving rain. My British friend came over for a couple of hours after lunch. He has just left.

 18.00 Still blowing a gale and raining slightly. It seems all three bike locks will be delivered tomorrow.

  It is a week since I had mackerel on toast. So I am going to surprise myself. 😇

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