My family and I recently moved home, the new house is a new build on a new development. Nice though having a new house has been, there have been one or two unexpected and unappreciated challenges. The most recent and intensely frustrating problem connected to car insurance prompted this exasperated blog.

With regards to her car insurance, Mrs Baldwin dutifully informed Hastings Direct of our new address when the move took place. Though that was earlier this year, this week saw her car insurance cancelled because the insurance company couldn’t cope with the new postcode (probably to do with being able to create a risk profile). 

Postcode issues have of course popped up all over the place and resulted in me and Mrs B. needing to input addresses manually on a variety of service providers’ websites because the postcode lookup functionality failed. The issues haven’t affected our banking or our ability to secure house insurance, get on the voters’ roll, buy train tickets, sort out rubbish collections etc. but Hastings and indeed the car insurance aggregator sites haven’t been able to cope at all.

So on Tuesday, we were in the ridiculous situation that we had a mortgage, mail redirection, house insurance and life assurance and yet Hastings Direct couldn’t insure the cars on the drive. Mrs B. had to ring around a variety of insurance businesses (instead of rely on the usual websites) to find a new policy. Thankfully Esure was able to help.

The new policy enabled Mrs B. to continue to drive her car but in having to arrange it, she has lost six months of additionally accrued no claims and has had to fork out for a new policy before getting a refund from Hastings for the six-month period that it now won’t cover.

Our new home is in a Northamptonshire village that has been established for hundreds of years, our estate is a short distance from the A428 and the drive we live on is just off the main road through the village. How hard would it have been to base an insurance quote on the risk profile of the houses just across the road? 

The service from Hastings was shit and we will never deal with the company again. The computer said ‘no’ and the client services staff, though apologetic were powerless as a result. Mrs B. was livid and I was cross enough to take to my keyboard. We will of course raise a formal complaint but fully anticipate that will achieve nothing.

In our technology enabled world, where our new home is visible from space and where new houses are being built all over the place (there are dozens of new developments in Northamptonshire alone), it is ridiculous that something as straightforward as car insurance becomes a problem.

And we can’t be alone in experiencing these kinds of challenges. 

With regards to property, if you are buying new – beware! 

​Blog Home
Blog Library
Home

On Tuesday 11th April I went to a concert at the Milton Keynes Theatre - Caro Emerald was headlining. I had a great night out and thought I’d write about it. Though Ms Emerald was brilliant, this post is not going to be my normal kind of gig review. This article will not be about the set list or the on stage antics, it will instead focus upon why the outing was so different and therefore got me reflecting.

The first point to make (and regular readers will appreciate the significance of this) is that the music genre was jazz. And yep you read that right – not punk music or heavy metal for a change.

The next landmark was that Mrs Baldwin came with me. And this dear readers is quite something; we have been married for more than 15 years (and together for longer) and yet, Mrs B. has never been to a gig with me before. Though to be frank, she hates metal/punk and that has been a bit of an obstacle.     

Upon arriving at the theatre, it became clear that I was helping to lower the average age of the audience. Though it disappoints me, I have got used to turning up to gigs and realising that the grey hairs (I have a growing and simultaneously shrinking volume of them) are poorly represented. In MK though, grey was the new black, the hair colour of the masses. On the 11th, instead of being the old guy, I was a relative youngster.

The show was all seated. No standing, no mosh pit…all very civilised and a bit disconcerting for me. For most of the show, most of the punters stayed seated. Caro did eventually manage to encourage/cajole a percentage of the crowd to stand and dance but it was touch and go. 

I danced…

…obviously.

The audience was well dressed in the main. For the blokes, chinos and shirts with collars (I am much more used to scruffy tee shirts, denim jeans and leather jackets); for the ladies, dresses were the norm.     

In between the acts, the break was, rather formally if you ask me, called the “interval” and drinks could be pre-ordered. Once again, very civilised, wine everywhere not just beer in plastic beakers. No sound checking took place (obligatory at my normal gigs) because everything had been tested already. Very efficient I thought. 

When the acts were ready to take to the stage, a polite sounding bell was rung to suggest that the audience should make its way to its seats. You don’t get that kind of service at my usual gig!        

On the subject of drinks – none were thrown around. 

In fact nothing anti-social occurred anywhere as far as I could tell. No one heckled, there was never a suggestion of fisticuffs, instead at the end of every number there was polite clapping. My parents would have fitted in just fine and most likely enjoyed themselves.

The experience at Milton Keynes Theatre was, perhaps unsurprisingly, much more like a theatre outing than a gig. I came away a tad confused and wondering if the more sophisticated, higher quality, sweeter smelling, cleaner, drier, more comfortable and more socially acceptable night out should start to replace my typical energetic, sweaty, noisy, more aggressive, dirtier, edgier and more tiring kind of event.

But I think not. I can’t see bands like Iron Maiden, Desert Storm or the Bleach Boys wanting to play in such surroundings, salubrious though they might be.  So grittier venues like the Craufurd Arms and Club 85 (but not to see Iron Maiden) will continue to be the kinds of haunts I’ll be more likely to be found in. At least until I am much closer to retirement anyway.  

A Caro Emerald related post from 2013
​Blog Home
Blog Library
Home