As I explained yesterday (Wednesday) I went in to the Milton Keynes Civic Offices to attempt to deal with what I was told was a sort of discretionary top-up to my housing benefits. Milton Keynes Council will not pay all my rent, for some reason best known to themselves. I need to have the rest paid from this, whatever it's called. I drove back in to Milton Keynes centre for the third time this week, parking as usual near The Point (oh dear, what a sad sight it has become! A once major Milton Keynes landmark, a sort of iconic Milton Keynes building with it's metallic pyramid-shape now little more than a rusting hulk, the rest of the multi-screen cinema complex deserted, boarded-up and looking a real mess. Totally sad and a disgrace to let it rot like this. The first multiplex cinema complex in the United Kingdom. I could go on. No doubt the owners waiting until the price of this prime location goes up before selling it off to the highest bidder.) Anyway, rant over. But you have to admit that it rather lowers the time of the area and doesn't exactly give Milton Keynes a very good image if you were to arrive via bus and then see this disgrace. I walked in through the shopping centre. There are no end of black crows perched in the trees and you walk across the road, some strutting around on the pavement, giving an air of impending doom and disaster, rather like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's film 'The Birds,' based on Daphne DuMaurier's creepy story.
Having reached the Civic Offices, a good walk through the shopping centre, I had to sign in using one of the computer terminals. The thing issues you with a printed ticket with a number on it and then you have to wait in the seating area and wait for your number to come up on one of the screens and a computer voice to call you to whichever desk. There weren't that many other people waiting, fortunately. A lot of odd people wandering about, a large party which was going to the offices upstairs presumably for some sort of meeting and signing in at the furthest desk. They don't have such a thing as a reception desk anymore, a similar system they have at my bank, the NatWest, which is right next door to the Civic centre. Someone sort of 'floating,' with a clipboard or an iPad, to greet you as you enter, and make sure you're signed in and on the correct 'path', either to sign up for benefits or something else. It amuses me the way the computerised voice gives you instructions as to where to go when you number is called. I'd be interested as to how it works. Does someone sit and record all the numbers and then they are stored in a computer system? I don't know how it manages to decide which 'chunks' of dialogue to broadcast and in which order. The voice doesn't manage to sound too realistic when it gets to the end of a sentence. It should go 'down' rather than 'up.' Which gives a somewhat weird style of delivery. Why is it a female voice? Do people react to a female voice rather than a male? All these sorts of things go through my mind as I sit and wait.
I had to wait about half an hour and then my number came up. Number 208. I could see the numbers going down on the screen. One of the reasons I made sure I was at the office early enough because the last time I went in there it was mid-morning and I had to wait a good hour-and-forty minutes, with screaming babies and people talking with loud voices on their mobiles.
So, I walked to the correct desk and sat down and told the clerk or whatever his title would be, why I was there, to be told that any discretionary payment applications could only be done on-line. Which annoyed me considerably, considering I had to drive into the city centre and park and then walk through to the Civic offices and wait in the queue. So, I left somewhat disconsolately. But at least I could do the application on this MacBook Air.
I was taken to Marks and Spencer at the shopping mall near the football stadium. for lunch by Ross Dilnot, Pastor at Shenley Christian Fellowship. He and other church members have been extremely supportive during the last few months and particularly at the time that Carol passed away. This is one place that Carol and I came on a regular basis for coffee and something to eat.
When I got home I had to search on-line for the Milton Keynes council website and the discover how to do the application for the discretionary payment I mentioned earlier in this blog post. I got part-way through the application and then the site would not move on to the next page, with the 'spinning ball of death' refusing to allow me to continue with the application. After several more attempts (I refused to give up as I wanted the application done in it's entirety.) I eventually managed to complete it. I have also done an application for the Teachers' Pension in the hope that I might receive some sort of payment from Carol's pension from working as a teacher at Milton Keynes Academy. I had to include a copy of the death certificate as well as our Marriage Certificate.
Having reached the Civic Offices, a good walk through the shopping centre, I had to sign in using one of the computer terminals. The thing issues you with a printed ticket with a number on it and then you have to wait in the seating area and wait for your number to come up on one of the screens and a computer voice to call you to whichever desk. There weren't that many other people waiting, fortunately. A lot of odd people wandering about, a large party which was going to the offices upstairs presumably for some sort of meeting and signing in at the furthest desk. They don't have such a thing as a reception desk anymore, a similar system they have at my bank, the NatWest, which is right next door to the Civic centre. Someone sort of 'floating,' with a clipboard or an iPad, to greet you as you enter, and make sure you're signed in and on the correct 'path', either to sign up for benefits or something else. It amuses me the way the computerised voice gives you instructions as to where to go when you number is called. I'd be interested as to how it works. Does someone sit and record all the numbers and then they are stored in a computer system? I don't know how it manages to decide which 'chunks' of dialogue to broadcast and in which order. The voice doesn't manage to sound too realistic when it gets to the end of a sentence. It should go 'down' rather than 'up.' Which gives a somewhat weird style of delivery. Why is it a female voice? Do people react to a female voice rather than a male? All these sorts of things go through my mind as I sit and wait.
I had to wait about half an hour and then my number came up. Number 208. I could see the numbers going down on the screen. One of the reasons I made sure I was at the office early enough because the last time I went in there it was mid-morning and I had to wait a good hour-and-forty minutes, with screaming babies and people talking with loud voices on their mobiles.
So, I walked to the correct desk and sat down and told the clerk or whatever his title would be, why I was there, to be told that any discretionary payment applications could only be done on-line. Which annoyed me considerably, considering I had to drive into the city centre and park and then walk through to the Civic offices and wait in the queue. So, I left somewhat disconsolately. But at least I could do the application on this MacBook Air.
I was taken to Marks and Spencer at the shopping mall near the football stadium. for lunch by Ross Dilnot, Pastor at Shenley Christian Fellowship. He and other church members have been extremely supportive during the last few months and particularly at the time that Carol passed away. This is one place that Carol and I came on a regular basis for coffee and something to eat.
When I got home I had to search on-line for the Milton Keynes council website and the discover how to do the application for the discretionary payment I mentioned earlier in this blog post. I got part-way through the application and then the site would not move on to the next page, with the 'spinning ball of death' refusing to allow me to continue with the application. After several more attempts (I refused to give up as I wanted the application done in it's entirety.) I eventually managed to complete it. I have also done an application for the Teachers' Pension in the hope that I might receive some sort of payment from Carol's pension from working as a teacher at Milton Keynes Academy. I had to include a copy of the death certificate as well as our Marriage Certificate.
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