Hello... Is there anybody out there? After a five month gap...
Welcome to The Grambler, the most ill-informed blog you are ever likely to see.
Stewart was an amazing person - A wonderful husband, a fantastic brother, a loving son and an adored uncle. He was also a brilliant friend and colleague and is missed by so many people. His family are determined that his death will never be in vain and are doing their part to beat bowel cancer for good. We are fundraising for the Bobby Moore Fund which is part of Cancer Research UK and specialises in research into bowel cancer. If you wish to donate to the fund, you can via https://www.justgiving.com/Geraldine-Smith3 .
If you haven’t already done so, please read the article which appeared in the Daily Record and learn from Stewart’s story that you must never be cacent. It makes grim reading for us, his family, even though we were beside him throughout his ordeal, or battle; call it what you will. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/lifestyle/heartbroken-widow-geraldine-smith-raises-3452997
Similarly, if you haven’t heard it, please listen to Geraldine’s moving radio interview which was on Radio Scotland.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5SZQo1EW_c&feature=youtu.be
Stewart began writing The Grambler when he was between procedures and hoping for some form of recovery. He loved all aspects of football and was a lifelong Motherwell supporter. His wish was that The Grambler should continue after his death and I have been happy to oblige. Read on and enjoy…
Well, where the blibbing flip has The Grambler been these past five months, I hear you ask. It is a long story. Do you want to know why the world’s greatest ill-informed blog has been conspicuous by its absence? Pull up a chair and I’ll tell ee...
Last September I got a message from the domain provider that thegrambler.com would 'cease to be' on a particular date in October. The reason for this was that I had failed to update my bank card details to pay for the use of the domain. No problem, thinks I, I’ll simply update my details and everything would carry on as before.
The specified date came and went and thegrambler.com was still active. Yay! I thought, I have averted having the blog cast into the ether. Sorted.
No, not sorted. A couple of weeks passed and thegrambler.com simply disappeared. Well, not quite. A message was displayed telling me that the domain name thegrambler.com was no longer my property. Instead, it was the property of some outfit called... let’s call them Go Mummy. I could rent the name from them. How the blibbing flip did they get rights to the name? Why wasn’t I given first refusal?
I contacted Go Grandad to buy back my domain. No problem, I was assured. I hate it when anyone tells me that, because I know what is coming is likely to be anything but no problem. And so it proved to be.
I went along with the setting-up procedure and paid over my dosh, which just so happened to be considerably more than I had previously paid. No matter, thinks I; at least I would be able to keep the blog going.
At the end of all this I was given a Go Granny account number and bid farewell. Thanks, I said and asked if they would simply unlock the blocked Grambler website so that I could continue writing the drivel which you all enjoy. What did I mean, I was asked. I explained. Oh no, I was told. Nothing can happen for three months. Sorry pardon excuse me?
Apparently, because I was classed as a new customer to Go... I’m running out of relatives... Auntie, I would have to wait three months before I could access my domain. Oh aye, sure. Meanwhile, whoever runs this outfit has trousered my dosh and legged it.
I pointed out my uncertainties and was assured that this was how all new customers were treated. And what happened after three months, I asked. I was told to contact them again and they would activate the account.
Fast forward three months. February, actually. I duly contacted Go Mammy to get thegrambler.com up and running again. After a good forty minutes of answering questions and giving various details, I was told that the site would be up and running again. Yay! In a few days. So,not yay.
A few days passed and the site was neither up nor running. It was completely awol. If I tried to access thegrambler.com, I was directed to my Blogger page. I suppose it was progress, of sorts.
Any road up, once again I contacted the charlatans who had hijacked my blog and asked them to help. The reply came that they no longer had an interest and I should contact the company that runs the blog page... Let’s call them Googly.
So I did this and was told that this was not their responsibility and I should take the matter up with the company from whom I had bought the domain.
I think you may well have heard my scream.
Thus, after three, approaching four, months I had a website that I had paid for, but couldn’t use, because nobody involved with the business of running the said website would acknowledge that they might, just maybe, be a little bit responsible for actually giving a bit of after sales assistance.
How, then, did I get to the point where I can now access thegrambler.com? It is thanks to somebody who is a little more knowledgeable about domains, blogs and web addresses than I am. I was unable to seek his help sooner because of lockdown rules which prevented anyone visiting other households. Now, though, it is possible to meet in a garden. Thus, Rob (for that is his name) was able to sit near enough to my wi-fi source without actually breaking any rules and managed to get thegrambler.com back on track. I hope. I am relying on you good people out in Gramblerland to get back to me and let me know that you have read this message. Only then, will I know if the world’s greatest ill-informed blog is truly up and running.
Meantime, I shall set about tidying this office up. It’s not had a dust in months. Oh yeuch! I didn’t know that dirty cup was in here. There’s enough penicillin in it to keep the NHS going for months.
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As usual (at the risk of repeating myself), I remind you of the main reason for continuing to publish this blog – to raise awareness about bowel cancer. If you have any bowel problems, don’t be fobbed off with the line that you are too young for bowel cancer to be a consideration. Just point your doctor in the direction of http://www.bowelcanceruk.org.uk/campaigns-policy/latest-campaigns/never-too-young-campaign
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Please, also take the time to click on this link, an informative little video from Mersh (a great friend of Stewart’s).
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A rather truncated (g)ramble this week. I apologise for that. It is really just me dipping my toe in the water, so to speak, to see if the good old blog is still viable. Next week, it will be back to grambling in earnest, I promise you.
Happy grambling.
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