Annoyed from Brentwood …

Well, somehow, I’m not surprised … !

Did I tell you about Allison’s trouble with the Post Office, this morning, trying to track a lost postal order?

Just in case you didn’t read it, she’s having a problem with the insurance company who’ve issued the policy for her bike.

The company — Rampdale — are threatening to cancel her insurance, as they’ve not received one of the payments.

Now, they’ve been quite helpful, in telling Allison what’s been going on.

Unfortunately, the Post Office hasn’t.

The first call Allison made — yesterday morning — was ok.

The woman on the other end of the line happily told her about the postal order she was asking about; the third in a series of three Allison used to pay her premiums.

Which isn’t — as it turned out — the one the insurance company had missed.

Rampdale had got both the one Allison had sent in June, and in August. But not the one she’d sent in July.

It seems Rampdale were missing the second one Allison had sent; back in July.

So, Allison phoned the Post Office a second time, yesterday afternoon.

And got told that the information given to her, in the first call, shouldn’t have been; but as it already HAD, the operator said she’d phone Allison back, with the necessary information. But also told her that she should’ve got form P58, and sent it in to them.

The operator also added that she’d phone Allison back, by the closed of business, that day.

Allison didn’t hear a thing.

So by this morning, Allison wasn’t very happy.

And phoned the Post Office, again.

To be told — by a different call centre operator — that the previous two, shouldn’t have gone anywhere near giving her the information, that she — the operator — couldn’t give her any information, and that Allison would have to fill in Form P58, and send it in.

So Allison headed up to the nearest sub-post office, just up the road. Shireen’s a very capable post-mistress, but couldn’t help, as that particular form wasn’t one she usually stocked, but that it shouldn’t be an issue, as the post office in Brentwood High Street would.

Shireen, as it turned out, was wrong.

The main Brentwood branch post office staff and management had never heard of it.

As you can possibly imagine, Allison is not a Happy Bunny.

She’s going to be making a follow up call, to the Post Office customer Service Helpline.

And I’d imagine the word “frustrated” will be a mild way of describing how’s she’s feeling; after all she’s only found that taking the £70 premium to her insurer’s, herself, some time AFTER they didn’t get it!

I know I’d be seriously hacked off!!!!

•••••

At any rate, it’s not quite what I intended to write about, when I started this post off, tonight.

I meant to tell you about the Sugar Hut.

Now, so you know — and I know @starlingpoet doesn’t, for example, she lives in Saskatchewan — the Sugar Hut’s a combination of nightclub, wine bar, and Thai restaurant.

Oh it was, until Sunday night, which is when it burnt down.

Dearie Me!

Now, as you can imagine, from the post’s title, I’ve sent another letter off to the Gazette.

Just to put me point across!

Here’s what I wrote, this time …

Dear Brentwood Gazette,

I’ve got to admit, it’s with a certain amount of sadness I read about the fire at the Sugar Hut, in Brentwood High Street.

Sadness, but — as with the couple who left abandoned their tenancy, after a rough touch of violence — but not surprise.

Now, I worked in the White Hart in the late 1990s, well before it was transformed into the Sugar Hut, and saw at first hand, the dangerous state of parts of the interior.

So when the Sugar Hut’s owners — with a lot of needless criticism — announced they were happily paying to do as much extensive reconditioning as they could afford, I was quite glad to hear it. After all, it meant anybody working there could get on with their jobs, without having the roof collapse on them. Those who talk about the ruination of a Grade ii Listed building obviously never had to work there, was always my thinking.

I’d also worked at the New World Inn, before the fire that gutted it, some year’s back; another unsurprising fire, in a historic building.

One that was also not designed to have some modern features.

Things like gas piping, or electrical wiring.

Stuff like that.

Which is kind of my point.

Many historical buildings like this need a lot of work to have simple things we expect to see in a pub venue. Electricity. Heating. Water. In an Edwardian era building — let alone one that’s five centuries old — that means a lot of potential problems. With maintenance, let alone the initial renovation costs.

Which means people talking of insurance scams, or (rumoured) deals with shady characters?

To me, is equally unsurprising. And incredibly naïve.

•••••

I’ve also got to mention that, before writing this email, I had a read of the various comments on the Brentwood Gazette’s page about this item. And I’m vaguely disturbed …

There was one chap who’d made a — possibly — unhelpful comment about replacing the Sugar Hut, with a mosque.

Not necessarily something I’d be happy about, in the middle of Brentwood High Street, but, at least worth mentioning.

It makes a nice point of discussion. But what mildly offended me were the many comments of the “Go Back to Where You Came From” variety.

Now, granted, we may collectively not want a mosque in the middle of Brentwood High Street.

But we’ve a Roman Catholic cathedral, a Spiritualist church, a Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall and — rumour has it — a Mormon temple, floating around somewhere; one denomination has headquarters in Vatican City, and the Spritualist, Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Mormons having their origins in the USA.

If people are going to complain about non-native religions, why are Earth aren’t they mentioning that?

I saw many people saying “I’m not rascist, but … ”.

And can’t help but wonder “Well, why have a pop at the one person who may not be white?”

It does make you wonder about Britain’s much-vaunted tolerance.

Paul Downie.

Hmmm …

You know, I wish I hadn’t been so hasty, sending that off, now I look at it; I should have added that to me, the Sugar Hut going up in smoke doesn’t necessarily mean it’s been subject to dodgy going’s-on.

More likely, I’m thinking, is that it’s gone up in smoke due to something as simple as as an improperly switched off gas line. Or cooker. Or a blown — and sparking — fuse, near something flammable.

Something like that.

Now, as I pointed out in the email, I worked at the New World Inn; now, I’d left, when it went up in flames. But the same sort of rumours were going around, when that happened.

Which I’m also very sceptical about.

After all, at the time I left, what was to become the DeRougement Manor Hotel was undergoing extensive renovation. And I suspect that — from what I heard, and from having worked there — that was a case of just carelessness. Live wires being left exposed, near lots of flammable wood, what have you.

Again, from what I heard, the same sort of thing happened at the Artichoke, and the Old Logge, when they burnt down.

Simple cases of carelessness; a builder at the Artichoke hadn’t turn off a blow torch, correctly, something had sparked, and kaBOOM. Same sort of thing with the Old Logge; someone in the kitchen hadn’t turned off a gas cooker, and …

You get the picture.

Chéfs, builders, gas …

Any kind of building work.

Historical pubs or buildings.

Lot’s of exposed woodwork …

Here’s my opinion.

I think the Sugar Hut went up as a result of either incompetence or accident.

Rather than maliciousness.

Which is maybe the point …