At Last!!!

I FINALLY have my order, my COMPLETE order from Argos. 44 days and numerous monumental Argos stuff-ups later I have my order. I'd like to say I'm happy but I think what I'm feeling is better described as relief. Relief that the whole s@*ding nightmare is finally over. CC reports I am not alone. So - why didn't you tell me BEFORE I ordered?? Now there's two of us sworn off Argos on-line.

The shambles that is Argos on line

Never again. Never ever again will I shop at Argos on-line. Complete and utter shambles does not even come close to describing their complete incompetence. Here's the story of our one-date-wonder.

16th May we decided to take advantage of a scheme run by Family Fund and get a discount on goods bought at Argos. The registering and purchasing was a song and dance in itself but having eventually completed the order we sat back to wait for the thud on the mat. Like most Autism parents we're experienced internet shoppers. We know how it works. Argos on-line apparently do not.

Time passed and our order didn't arrive. I called the customer services number and was told it had been shipped and should be with us by the end of the week. The end of the week came and went. No order. I called again and customer services was not happy when I wouldn't be fobbed off again with the same story. They gave me the scary music treatment but finally told me it had been delivered and signed for. What?? Well not by me matey!

After much persistence on my part they eventually found out they had sent vouchers for my order to the Family Fund office. Why would I ask for vouchers to take to the store?? I'm shopping on-line because it's more convenient!! This isn't rocket science. I order goods and pay for them, they dispatch them to me. At this point I start to loose patience. Thankfully they put me on to someone who appeared to have use of a brain cell who called me back to say what had happened and that she had sorted it out. My order would be dispatched and would be with me in the next few days. Again we waited. Again no order arrived.

I called her back. She gave me dispatch numbers so I could track it on line and sure enough a week later HALF the order arrived. By this time it was 222nd June. I talked to the delivery guy - we live in the back end of no where, we know our delivery guys - who said if he wasn't here by half ten he wasn't going to be here. The next day, you guessed it, no order. I went on line (thankfully our internet connection was holding up) to discover someone had signed for it in N7 not IV7. By this time I was beyond shouting. Steam was coming out of my ears.

I called again. Apparently, even though Parcel Force were able to deliver the other items, they "had trouble finding the address" and the other items had been returned to Argos depot. I sit here seething, quietly waiting for the rest of my order. I have a new dispatch number and I know how to use it. If it's not here as promised on Monday there will be big banana trouble.

Watch this space for further developments and in the mean time don't even think about using Argos on-line unless you are loosing the will to live. You have been warned.

We have ducklings!!

Our very first home grown babies. Cute or what?

I'm back all too soon....

For the most part I will let the photos talk for themselves. Hot-hubby and I had a wonderful two days away (well, one night, but I want to big it up!) on the west coast. There was no mobile signal anywhere. We were incommunicado. It was warm and sunny, we sat outside the pub (no kids around because they're all in school) with a pint of local beer, or two. Life just doesn't get much better.

a view on the way

The sign at the beginning of the road....

The view up the valley

and the view back down the road we just drove

and the view from the top of the highest road in Britain! That's Skye and Raasay you can see, what doesn't show is how cold and windy it was up there!

Camp Highland Madness! Look at that sunshine!! I actually regretted not having sunscreen with me.

Those hills again but from Applecross Bay....well, just outside the pub actually, right before the second pint!!

Having gotten the camping bug we intend to get a better tent, a WAY better bed accommodation (self inflating mattress my eye!), not to forget the chairs or the tea pot and to get some enamel mugs because tea out of plastic mugs borrowed off the kids just doesn't taste good. Next trip, Cairngorm national park...

Ging gang goolie and all that ....

We interrupt this planting marathon to go camping at Applecross!! We have a tent, camp cooker and a self inflating mattress. Just call me Bear Ghrylls!

(not sure if that's how you spell it but you know who I mean!)

Yes of course it's just me and Hot-Hubby, I'm not brave enough to take the girls. There now, I've broken out in a cold sweat just thinking about it! Full report and possibly pics to follow.

What if....?

This, amongst other things, got me thinking again about the age old question - what if my girls were "normal"? Where would life have taken us? What would life be like? One thing for certain is we would not be here at Highland Madness. the girls being the way they are was the catalyst that gave us the push, the drive and the courage to make such a dramatic change to our lives, both geographically and actually. If they were "normal", we wouldn't have the quality of life we now have. Hot-hubby would still be working 25 hours a day, I would have gone back to work once the kids were at school, we would have lived comfortably, as we did in our previous life, but would we have been happy? My guess is probably not as happy as we are now, or maybe it would just be a different happiness.

All in all, I am so content here, having dropped out, planting trees and currently feeding lambs, thinking how tasty they're going to be and trying to remember to water the blasted poly tunnel.

I wrote this post some time ago and have been too busy to get round to publishing it. I can report no change, just more jobs and more planting - I'm on to veg and strawberries now!