May 31st – 428,421.

Well the last twenty-fours have been a salutary experience – and in a good way. I’ll tell you about that in a moment, but in the meantime I’d better report on the writing, after all that is the core focus of this blog.

I kept going on the piece I started yesterday and wrapped up just before lunchtime with a word count of 3,349 words taking me to within the proverbial spitting distance of the 430k mark, which, all things being equal, should fall tomorrow.

This piece is proceeding at pace, a sure fire sign I’m enjoying writing it, and I have the whole lexicon of the plot laid out in my head where it is competing for space with another. I watched an interesting documentary last night about England’s Winter King, and the horribly repressive regime he ran, seeing plots and treachery around every corner and hiding in every alcove. Everyone knows the story of the son who overshadowed him, and of course, his many wives, but there are some interesting facts above the, then, future, Henry VIII as a young prince in his father’s court that make for a very interesting story indeed. That will be a trilogy, but for now it’s a research rather than a writing project, I have my hero, my heroine and a whole panoply of villains, including the sinister Henry Tudor, and even the tragic figure of Elizabeth of York.

Now to my shout out about something I can only class as exemplary customer service of the highest level. I know that sounds effusive, too much even, but it really isn’t. Yesterday at just before three o’clock in the afternoon I was given devastating news about our washing machine. The independent plumber I’d called out (and I stress the fact he was independent, and I’d used him before) condemned the washer for being beyond economic repair.

Within an hour, we were heading home from a large electrical chain, having ordered a replacement machine from a very helpful salesman, who took the time to make sure Marion, wheelchair bound and with speech problems, was happy with the choice. Since that had given me the chance to check on-line that his price was competitive, I was happy too. We booked their delivery service because that included unplumbing and removing the old one as well as plumbing in the new one and explaining its use.

At nine o’clock this morning they ran to confirm they would be delivering within thirty minutes, and by 9:45 they’d completed and done the job, despite me not booking a priority slot for the installation. The old machine was taken to be recycled, as was all the packaging and the exceedingly polite installation engineer talked Marion through the operation of the machine with as much patience as the salesman the day before.

So there you have it, from having a defunct washer at 3pm, a mere 18 and a half hours later we had a fully functioning new machine installed and working. Bear in mind, that they were closed for 12 hours out of that time, you can see why I’m giving a big shout out (something I very rarely do) for Currys and what they achieved for us today. My faith in big business is at least partially repaired unlike the dead washing machine.

Thanks Currys.