This morning was (yet another) early start. Out of the house by 5:30am. Ugh…. Hey, I shouldn’t complain I guess as I used to be up five days a week and out of the door at 6:30am. At least I don’t see early-o’clock every week day now.
After my usual BNI referral marketing meeting in Bath (Parade Chapter of course, not Circus) and a meeting to discuss the Society for One-Place Studies mapping project – funded by Skipton Building Society’s Grassroots Giving grant – I pottered back in the general direction of the office to pick up the four special deliveries I mentioned yesterday. Normally, collecting post from Calne’s Royal Mail collection office is a pleasure. Not today (though this is not the fault of Royal Mail in any way).
On a Friday, we have a market in Calne. It’s popular but never noticably affects the running of the town’s traffic system. Today, I tried to pass down the wonderfully designed single lane portion of Curzon Street and came to a grinding halt halfway down, thus blocking the traffic (along with another three vehicles). For some unaccountable reason, we seemed to not be moving AT ALL. I couldn’t quite fathom what the problem was until I rounded the bend (finally, and quite possibly in more ways than one) and noticed that Southern Electric, in their infinite wisdom, had decided – remember, it’s market day in Calne – to dig up the road and plant a three-way traffic control on the roundabout which is the only entrance/exit to the car parks in the town. Oh good heavens…. I parked (unhappily) and wondered how long it would take me to extricate myself from said car park later on.
Having only two jobs to do in town – collect my specials and pay in a cheque – unfortunately, I soon discovered how long it would take to get out again. I’ll share the answer with you – a sodding long time (politest parlance I can muster). In the time it took me to get out of the car park, I managed to call Natwest and two other people…. Southern Electric, I have a question for you: did you consider an alternative day, other than the town’s market day, to complete your electrical work in the centre of Calne? Might it not have been a better idea to carry out the work in the evening so as to cause less disruption to a town whose traffic system is already ‘a little problematic’ at the best of times….?
Quite frankly, you made a bad choice, Southern Electric. You have probably alienated most of the inhabitants of Calne and many others who were hoping to ‘pop to town’ (and back again swiftly) today. Boo hiss to you….
