Diary of an (ex)London mum

We make a point of giving Baby experiences rather than presents for his birthday and Christmas as we know that he will be given plenty of presents from his closest and dearest family and friends.  Last year we gave him an annual membership to the London Aquarium to feed his appetite for all knowledge of the fishy kind.  This year we got him an annual membership to the London Zoo.  This is proving to be excellent value for money so far.   We went as a group with some family members in the Summer and decided that we would go for annual membership after the visit as Baby really enjoyed the space and the exhibits.  We got the ticket price discounted off the membership fees and, using the letter confirming that our application has gone through, we got into the zoo on our second visit using an entrance that was closer to the tube station than the one used by non-members and we didn't have to queue.  Collecting the membership cards were a dawdle- we turned up ...

I regularly purchase items from a popular global online seller, let's call them Axxxxx, as they have a large variety of goods and the delivery service is usually very good.  The following events are uncommon but I am sufficiently disgruntled by the outcome to tell the story here.  I ordered some items for my son, taking care to check the estimated delivery dates to ensure that the delivery would be on a day when my husband would be home to receive them. When they didn't arrive (highly unusual for this company), I checked my online account and found the items had been listed as delivered  at a specific time on the afternoon that we were expecting them, but signed for by someone we didn't know.  I emailed  Axxxxx  to ask for further details, offering to try to retrieve the items if I could have a house and flat number from the courier.  It took  Axxxxx  two days to tell me that the items have been delivered to a local shop instead; I...