Zenrat's Flying Circus

[zenrat]

Not cricket.  A gathering of the clans.  Victorians, South Australians, and (new) Western Australians.  A 70th birthday and 40th wedding anniversary.

Much drinking of beer, some dancing, lots of catching up, and I got to paddle in the Indian Ocean again.  Been years since i've done that.

[zenrat]

Work reared its ugly head today.
I also had to visit two banks.
At one I had to hand in a letter containing somebody else's credit card which had been addressed to my house (mistake? or scam?).  They couldn't have cared less.  They took it and said they would return to but that was it.
At the second, the one where I bank, there was a man asking to be sent the paper statements he had always received.  He was being told "No.  We don't do that anymore you will have to print them yourself".  When he said he didn't have a computer he was told he would have to get one.  Nice people.  Did they apologise for stopping a service he had always counted on being there?  Did they f**k.
When I got to the counter (holding the form I needed help with) the initial attitude to me from the cashier was suspicion and distrust.  Again, nice people.  When i'm at work I like to treat customers with a smile and a hello, not with doubt.

[The Wooksta!]

Console yourself with the comforting thoughts that their employer will gleefully throw said employees to one side like discarded crisp packets as soon as they get an opportunity,

[PR19_Kit]

...... and try and do ALL their 'business' by computer and on line.

While ignoring the fact that not everyone has the means or the ability to understand such arcane stuff! 

[NARSES2]

My first job was with Barclays Bank back in 1968 and I lasted 6 months before we parted ways    Lets just say that me and a rather important customer of the branch I was in had a slight disagreement over her statement. Back then, not only were they basically produced by hand (triple or double shot NCR machines) but they were sent out with all the months cheques and credit slips, even those you'd paid in yourself, tucked in the envelope. Orders came from on high to stop sending out self credit slips, I followed them and no one told me that they didn't apply to "special" customers  After the "discussion" I was called in and offered the choice of seeing my notice out or taking a months wages in lieu. I took the wages 

Ah the good old days 

[zenrat]

Fred's first rule of customer service - never ask the customer how they are, they might just tell you.

Half a day of work this morning and then shed time.  It's been warm and extremely humid here today.  Humidity in the high nineties.  Top of 22℃.  Showers and rain.
Annoying as I have some clearing I want to do.

The smell has now almost completely gone.  What little that I can still detect might be psychosomatic.  I am assuming all the recent rain flowing through my shed has washed the corpse(s) away.

[NARSES2]

The smell has now almost completely gone.  What little that I can still detect might be psychosomatic.  I am assuming all the recent rain flowing through my shed has washed the corpse(s) away.

I'm just wondering how many local constabulary's A.I. systems are flagging these type of statements up for farher investigation ? 

[Rick Lowe]

...... and try and do ALL their 'business' by computer and on line.

While ignoring the fact that not everyone has the means or the ability to understand such arcane stuff! 

PRECISELY!!

They sometimes will allow you paper statements and bills, but there's always a charge for same and often a delay in receiving them...
Or, the statements have to be done through an online banking system (see Kit's point above) or by paper - they won't email them for you to print yourself.
Security issues I suppose, but there are ways and means to protect you and them in that scenario.

And as for 'customer service'? I think the theory of "Would you trust a person/institution that treats customers/service staff like that?" is even more pertinent nowadays.

[zenrat]

Another bank card arrived today addressed to someone who doesn't live at my house.  Having learnt that taking it into a bank generates zero care I have instead opened the envelope, cut the card in half, sealed it all back up again, and written RETURN TO SENDER.  NOT KNOWN AT THS ADDRESS on it in big black letters.  I'll post it tomorrow.  Cutting the card might force them to pay attention but I doubt it.

Transfers on the Staggie and the MiG today.  Only got a pic of the MiG before Mrs z borrowed my phone.

MiG 15 WIP 02-12-2024 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

It's a RW scheme from the box.  Cuba, Bay of Pigs (well, slightly later but i'll write a whiffy back story).

Another set of ratlines completed on the Sea Witch.  That's all the lower sets constructed.  The new technique is way quicker than the way I was doing it and PVA is much easier to use than superglue.  In todays heat and humidity it was drying in under 1/2 hour.

[NARSES2]

Mig's looking good 

[Rick Lowe]

It is, indeed.
Wish I'd thought of PVA when I was failing in the effort of making my own ratlines. Ah well, next time.
Nope, there won't be one of those, but the idea could come in handy elsewhere - cheers.

[zenrat]

I will never be building another fully rigged sailing ship once I finish this.  But I will need to rig the Sky Pirates airship when I build that.
But that is a long way in the future.
Next "big job" after I finish the Sea Witch is to put my 1:1 motorcycle back together.

[scooter]

I will never be building another fully rigged sailing ship once I finish this. 

That's what stopped me from building my 1/96 Constitution

[zenrat]

Staghound.  Painted, cleared, transfers on, more clear of various levels of sheen, masking removed.
Next is fiddley bits - tools, PE wipers, stowage - and then weathering.
The base is something i'm working on for the VBL.  The black stuff is MIG asphalt texture stuff i'm trying out.  I'm not yet convinced.  It's texture is on the large side for 1/35 asphalt and it's proving impossible to spread in a smooth layer.  Sanding it might solve both issues.
Stsghound WIP 09-12-24 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

And here is the figure i'm working on for the VBL.  1/35 French Soldier Girl.  3D print from somewhere I forget the name of in France.  The packaging is in the shed.  I'll look it up.
I'm pleased with the result of this one.  My figure painting is improving.
She just needs some clears to adjust the sheen of various items of her wardrobe.
French Girl Soldier WIP 09-12-24 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

[PR19_Kit]

That girlie figure is astonishing! REALLY good.