Cafcass

In the matter of children from broken homes, the government agency responsible for advising the Courts on parental contact is Cafcass.


You can follow the progress of my Cafcass story here:


http://www.andrewbrel.com/cafcass/

My wordpress blog

 

After several weeks of learning wordpress, my new site with its own wordpress blog is up and running.

Heres my first blog post.

Auto Europe

On May 4th, I arrived at Murcia Airport to collect my rental car, booked and paid for with Auto Europe.
My first indication that all was not well is when I saw the length of the line at the counter for Auto Europe's partner, GoldCar. It would take 65 minutes to reach the front, and during this time, I went forward to see what was causing the delay. I heard the same complaint each time. 'This is ridiculous. I paid for the Insurance online." Another said "This is just a con. I have a package including all Insurances."  The gist of what was causing this long delay became apparent. Finally, 65 minutes later, I reached the front of the line and was invited to take out a further Insurance of E45.  I referred him to the existing Insurance.

"Listen to me carefully. This Insurance means nothing. You have no Insurance in Spain". 

In a very short space of time it became clear that the Counter Assistant had lost his way, as his presentation transcended regard for the customary professional constraints associated with the office of car rental counter employee, deviating alarmingly into furious raging aggression in limited English, applied with a strong Spanish accent. When I directed him the the terms and conditions on the Auto Europe document, which states the Insurance position very clearly, Mr GoldCar, finally gave up any pretense of civility. 
'You get no car from me. Now you can walk' he shouted throwing my card back at me.

And so, around 11 pm on a Saturday Night, in Murcia Airport, which is small and not a place you expect much by way of taxi service, I was left stranded without a hire car, with a party of four including a 3 year old child, whose first question was 'Daddy, why did that man shout at you.'

The start of our one week holiday in Spain was effectively ruined from that point.

Upon my return one week later I contacted Auto Europe with details of my complaint. Some correspondence flowed - an offer of Fifty Pounds by way of compensation, which I declined, and then the MD of Auto Europe mailed me, this time with an accusatory tone saying he had stalked my Facebook page, despite the privacy notice governing that particular practice by uninvited stalkers, and didn't like the tone with which I had described events in Murcia. (You can read that page Here).

I made a settlement offer, following advice from the Trading Standards Institute, and when the deadline for that offer expired without  reply, on Friday 17th, I decided to proceed with my complaint. Trading Standards were extremely helpful, and after a thirty minute conference, the matter was issued as 'Unfair Business Practice' and A Reference handle created, meaning events are now underway.

In the interim I created a Facebook Page to document the correspondence and report progress. Which you can visit Here.  

My intention is to progress the Trading Standards complaint and following that outcome, claim in County Court for  damages against Auto Europe. The costs arising from the unilateral breach of contract and the miss-leading fraudulent advertisement of a product; A fully Insured rental vehicle, which turned out to be not Insured at all despite the payment being taken and the documentation of confirmation being issued. Add the that being stranded abroad in an Airport late at night with a small child. I calculated it took three days to calm down and start to enjoy the holiday. So I will pursue one third of my holiday costs, as well as the cost of the transport I had to arrange following the cancellation of the car I had booked and paid for. I expect tpo add my legal fees to the claim.

But mostly, I wish to help anyone else from being victim to Auto Europe and their fraudulent scam. They should not be allowed to get away with it and the more people who know about my experience, the less likely it will be that Auto Europe can carry on their sharp practice. 

To this end I have posted details on TripAdvisor Murcia page. 

Here's my Auto Europe review on Reviewcentre.

Phil the Greek

Google Phil the Greek and you will arrive at Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

But how Greek is Prince Philip.

Not at all is the answer. No Greek DNA just Danish, German and Russian.

His mum was born in Windsor Castle and was German, a Battenberg family member, named Alice. (Alice went bonkers but recovered and stayed in Greece during the Nazi occupation to save Jews from deportation, according to Wikipedia. When she was required to leave Greece after the Royals were kicked out in 67, she returned to Buckingham Palace. After her death, her remains were moved to Jerusalem for burial in the Mount of Olives.)

Philips dad was Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, who was born in Athens to a Father who was Danish and a mother who was Russian. (A member of the Romanov dynasty who married King George when she was 16. A very religious woman who upset conservative believers by promoting a new translation of the gospel in Greece. )

His Grandad was born Prince William of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, in Copenhagen to a Danish father and German mother, Louise of Hesse-Kassel. 

So there you have it. No more Phil the Greek. Its Phil the Danish German Russian.

My home made guitar

This picture is taken in 1982, in the straw roofed rondavel at the farmhouse in Chartwell which I turned into a recording studio. 

On the left - in the snare stand - is my Oberheim DMX, probably the first one in South Africa. The guitar was my home made travel guitar - which would evolve into a fantastic recording instrument before being stolen in 1989 during the burglary at my studio in Hampton Court. 

Heres the guitar story.

Jose Fernandes, with whom I shared this 500 acre rental farmhouse in Chartwell for the last two years I lived in Johannesburg, bought one of the first Midi tracking guitars. A Roland GS 500. A Les Paul style body and a midi box of sounds. Problem was it tracked too slowly - especially on the low notes - and so it soon became apparent it was unsuitable for purpose. And then Jose dropped it, smashing the top half of the headstock. At that time Steinberger had brought out the little headless 6 string - in black - and I wanted one of those as a travel guitar. So I appropriated the carcass of the Roland Synth guitar and set up a work bench. 

Bear in mind I had no experience with the craft of the luthier and no skills with woodwork. My sole qualification was having read about Brian Mays efforts with a fireplace. With a vice holding the guitar, I sawed off the headstock. I had a friend with an engineering works, and I drew a design of a piece of metal with six little dips in it, to attach to the end of the sawed of neck - where the strings would fix on. He made it for me and I screwed it into the back end of the neck. 

I traced out a design of how I wanted the body to be, modelled mostly on the Steinberg shape. The Roland was a solid chunk of wood - and so I decided to make the tuning pegs attach to a pyramid cut out on the right hand side. (You can see the original Grover heads from the Roland in the picture next to my right hand.) 

I removed the midi tracking pick up and replaced it with a di Marzio Humbucker at the back and a Seymour Duncan (purple) on the front. The Seymour Duncan was the most expensive part of the Instrument - bought from Eddie Boyle at Toms for top dollar.  

Each pick up I wired to its own jack output in my only foray into soldering electronics. It had two volume knobs, one for each pick up. One pick up went into a volume pedal - where I could bring it in or out with the accompanying sound. When I used it at gigs, the clean pick up went straight to the PA - and the dirty pick up(The Di Marzio) went to the guitar amp so I could shut it down with the volume pedal until I wanted that sound.

I found the Roland neck was too thick, and I guess I was just extremely lucky that when I shaved and sanded the neck back to get it to match the contour of my hand, somehow it worked, despite a total absence of any wood working skill. The neck became the best feature of the guitar - much like a thinline Tele neck.

The problem with my design effort was the balance. With the bulk of weight on the neck side, the guitar would not hang in a neutral way. This made it a headache at gigs. It would droop down to the left.

A few years passed, I moved the England, and found myself in a music shop in Addlestone, where I met a Luthier - Tom Anfield. I showed him the guitar, which he loved, and he came up with an ingenious design for moving the centre of gravity for attaching the strap. A six inch wooden piece on a rotating screw that would fold out to hold the strap end. By extending the strap holding width - and using trial and error on the length of the wooden add on - eventually we had the guitar able to balance neutral. And when it was stored - the 'Anfield add-on' rotated back into a cutaway bit of the body to become invisible.

With the guitar now a joy to hold as well as to play, I began using it at gigs and for awhile it became my main instrument. 

Then in 1989, my studio at Hampton Court, at 3 Bridge Road, was burgled and included in the thieves tally was this guitar.

For years I hoped its distinctive style would lead it back to me, but now, 23 years later, I have come to terms with its loss. This may in part explain my fairly extensive collection of quality guitars, compensating for the disappointment.

I have never since dabbed with either woodwork or soldering.

Greatest hits of religious music

Here is a favourites list of the most articulate songs dealing with Religion.









1. Frank Zappa - Dumb all Over 

2. Tim Minchin - The Pope Song

3. Garfunkel and Oates - Fuck me in the ass because I love Jesus

4. The Who - Man in a Purple Dress 

5. John Lennon - Imagine (Playing for change version)