Today I had planned to visit Pat at New Milton Children’s centre and take lots of my lovely bargain books to share with the mums/dads aunts etc over there. Wightlink ferry company nearly scuppered my plans. Living on an Island is lovely but it has its draw backs! Namely, being in the hands of the ferry companies if I want to leave and go to the North Island. Well I rang to make a booking and was told the system wouldn’t allow the lad to make my booking – he implied the system had closed down. So many times I have rung and got frustrated because I become part of a queue and the recorded message says you can book online and gives the web address. How frustrating is that because yes you can book online providing your DON’T drive a van (which I do) apparently lots of van drivers fib about the size of their van!!! So often I find it quicker to jump in my van and go to the terminal to make the booking. Today, however, I needed to travel from Yarmouth which is the opposite side of the Island from where I live. With the price of diesel as high as it is, I didn’t really want to drive across the Island on the off chance that I might get on a ferry. I asked to speak to a supervisor and unfortunately I didn’t find her to be very helpful. A “sorry” wouldn’t come amiss! Anyway, in the end I decided that the only way I stood a chance of getting across today was to take a chance and drive to Yarmouth.
When I got there, I was greeted by a very helpful young lady, Charlotte who sympathised with my plight. The ferries were running late and fully booked but I could go on standby!! Well if I bought a single ticket and couldnt get across before Pat left work, I would waste my money. The answer was that I had to buy a book of tickets (really couldn’t afford that) What it meant was that I could use those on any day so I wouldn’t waste money today if I couldn’t get across. Well Charlotte was very cheerful and apologised (which others didn’t do) A quick “sorry” with a pleasant smile works wonders
Anway, when I returned with my ticket, there was a car alongside and a lovely lady, Kate and I engaged in conversation to pass the time of day. It is so nice to be surrounded by friendly people and Kate certainly fell into that category so thankyou Kate for improving my day!
Not long afterwards, Charlotte must have waved a magic wand, as I was boarding the ferry without further delay.
I decided to have some refreshments as I hadn’t had time for lunch and I was served by Johnnie, who was having a laugh and a joke with the customers. I must say that Charlotte and Johnnie made such a difference. I was furious with Wightlink when I left home but being dealt with by happy smiling people saved the day. Perhaps they should make it part of company training!!Perhaps they do and its just that not everyone heeds the advice!
Whilst eating my refreshment, a fellow traveller chatted with me too – but infortunately I didn’t catch his name so can’t mention it – but he was something to do with helping post office people improve their businesses.
The rest of my trip to see Pat was uneventful but Pat had the kettle on as she knew the morning had been stressful! I left my beautiful bargains and made my way back to the ferry and I had managed to book the return trip earlier thank goodness! I was well in time for my ferry but then they announced that there was a hours delay!! At this point I thought I’d get a cuppa and a County Press to save boredom setting in! well there on the floor was half a county press and the canteen lady was closing up!! I asked if she usually closed at that time and she said no. So that makes sense – the ferries are running late so let’s close the canteen!! Anyway, I returned to my van having a laugh and a joke with another lady and suggested that if they had an hour to wait they could come to my van and see what lovely books I had to pass the time!!!!!!!!!!!you can view my catalogue and all my scrummy books here
Lo and behold, when I got to the van, Paul, another cheerful employee of Wightlink waved me on to the boat so the announcement saying there was a delay was a porkie pie!! Paul said they had caught up. The rest of my was quite uneventful.