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01/01/20 Weds. Happy New Year and happy new decade everyone!
I still have no really useable laptop and again am using the old one while it still holds out. I went up to Kota Kinabalu on Monday 30th Dec., to meet Ana at the airport in the early hours of the 31st.
The next morning I returned the laptop to the shop where I bought it in mid October, told them it was not working as it should and would like it replaced. I was met with the anticipated "we cannot replace it Sir, that would be up to the manufacturer." I told them that my contract was not with the manufacturer, but with them the retailer, and referred them to Section 32 of the 1999 Consumer Protection Act, which says the goods must be of merchantable quality, durable, free from defects etc. They then said they had a policy not to exchange goods after one week, to which I said, "I don't really care what your policy is, you are obliged to change it under the law, and you should refer to Section 3a of the 2010 amendment to the aforementioned 1999 Act which shows your 'policy' to be an unfair contract". There was a lot of huffing and puffing until I mentioned that I was sure a court would find in my favour. The two guys faces dropped noticeably and one asked, "you wouldn't go so far would you?" I told them I didn't want to, but would if need be. There was no arguing, it was all done amicably but the outcome is that they have to send it to the service centre for them to judge if a replacement is justified under warranty. OK, I will accept that for now........but I'm not happy about it!
We caught the bus back to Menumbok at 9.30am this morning, we were glad we had missed the earlier one because halfway to Menumbok we came across the bus in a ditch, fairly smashed up. The passengers had obviously been transferred to another coach and only the sheepish looking driver remained with the vehicle. Arrived back onboard around 2pm after lunch in town.
02/01/2020 Thurs. Things don't seem to be going very well this year so far! The Passport Office in the UK have rejected my passport photograph for the second time - no explanation given. Today into town to the photo studio for yet another one, sent that off and await to see what happens this time.
05/01/20 Sun. Yay! Passport Office accepted the 3rd photo I sent and have e-mailed me that my passport has been printed and sent, it is due for delivery here on the 8th.
07/01/20 Tues. DHL have mailed me with a new delivery schedule of the 10th - I thought the 8th was a little optimistic! Also, the computer shop in KK phoned and messaged me saying my laptop was ready for collection but they have only re-installed Windows - which I had already done twice! So, it looks like this saga will go on for a while yet, I will go to KK next week sometime and explain that they are required to either exchange it for a new one, or give me a full refund by law - watch this space!
08/01/20 Weds. OK, an update to what I've already written.....my passport has arrived this morning, so maybe DHL are referring to my 'old' one when they said the 10th. Interestingly, although my new passport is still the horrible burgundy colour, the words "European Union" have disappeared from the front cover and it now says 'United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland', so it looks like we finally have some progress in that direction! We paid a visit to a solicitor's office this afternoon, just to get my facts right about the Consumer Protection Act, she was very helpful and confirmed my interpretation of the document.
11/01/20 Sat. Into the optician's in Financial Park today, had my eyes checked and found they have changed since my last check, so ordered two new pairs of reading glasses to be delivered in about 10 days or so.
18/01/20 Sat. A few things have happened this week. We went to KK on Monday and had a heated discussion with the PC shop regarding my laptop, took it to the service centre and insisted on a full check of the hardware which they took all day to complete. That night in the hotel, I discovered it wouldn't connect to the internet, nor were there any audio devices installed, so the following morning it went back to the service centre for another few hours. Returning to Labuan, long time friends Jamie and Liz (Esper) had arrived from Miri, so we had two evenings with them catching up on news and events - last saw them in Cochin about 9 years ago!
19/01/20 Sun. Laptop problems continue. This new one, an Acer Aspire will not 'talk' over Wi-Fi to my Vesper AIS on OpenCPN which means no position shows on the chart and no AIS targets. I have spent most of yesterday and today trying to figure out why that is so and have found that the Serial Ports (COMM/LPT) are not connected to the laptop for some reason (it all worked at first purchase!). Easy fix, just connect the drivers to the computer the message is telling me. Yeah, right, HOW?
20/01/20 Mon. Another day of trying to rectify the laptop problem, including a visit to a PC shop technician who couldn't solve it either! However, during the evening I had success by changing all the values of the network communication system with the AIS - so all is up and running again now!
21/01/20 Tues. A trip into town today for shopping and lunch.
27/01/20 Mon. Over the last week, I've been up the mast three days running to replace the deck light with LED as it was the only light on the boat which was not LED. I had bought a replacement some time ago and just got around to changing it. The new winch was tested as well for the first time and Ana was able to hoist me up easily with the two speeds. We went to check out today but Jabatan Laut was closed for public holiday (still Chinese New Year), so we will have to do that tomorrow and leave for Brunei on the 29th. On the bad news side......the laptop has crashed again and cannot be re-booted, so it means yet another trip to KK and another argument in the shop, meanwhile I have lost all the new files and documents.
28/01/20 Tues. Checked out with Immigration, Customs and Jabatan Laut, did a little shopping.
29/01/20 Weds. Slipped the moorings and motored over to Brunei in calm conditions and a following 15 knot wind. Using the engine and genoa, we made 7 knots for most of the passage. After entering the channel, the newly fitted engine temperature alarm sounded and I shut down the engine, sailing into the achorage and dropping the anchor under sail. A later inspection of the coolant, raw water strainer and seacock revealed no faults and I can only assume we had sucked a bag onto the inlet which dropped off once the engine was stopped.
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