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Even though I've had electric cars for quite a few years now I have very rarely charged them at public chargers. I mainly use the electric car for local journeys and trips to London, because when I am going further afield I usually have to have more space for kids, luggage and show paraphernalia. The range on the old car wasn't really good enough to attempt a long journey. I could do 200 miles without charging in the new one, so it's feasibly to use for gigs in most of England as long as I can recharge when I'm working.
Today the car was only 50% charged when I set off (even though I thought it had been charging in the garage) and though that's enough fuel to get me to London and back, I thought I might try recharging it in town, just so I can be sure I know what to do. Also parking at the Bill Murray works out more expensive than charging the car for a couple of hours, so I thought I might as well get something for my money.
I suppose they assume that anyone who has an electric car is tech savvy and will know what they're doing, but the process seemed unnecessarily complicated. I scanned the QR code and the website I went to made it look initially like you could only use the chargers if you were a subscriber and had a card. So I nearly gave up. But that seemed like a stupid way to run a business so I persisted and found that you could pay per session if you pressed the right symbol. I entered all my details and they took £50 off my card (that would be refundable) but when I tried to start the session everything flashed red and it said it was under maintenance. I rang the number on the unit and a confused man looked me up and finally asked if I'd connected the charger to the car before I started. I had and that was the issue, though some kind of instructions on that would have helped. He didn't seem too forthcoming about what I could do to sort it out, but eventually I ascertained that i had to unplug and start again. I did that and was charged another £50 but this time things seemed to be working. It had taken me about 20 minutes though and I seemed to be a ton down on the deal. I had emails saying I had two sessions going. This money-saving experiment might bankrupt me.
Surely you should just be able to tap your debit card on these things and get on with it (which is what I think I did in the end- I am still not entirely sure how I got it working), though they do need you email at least I suppose to send you bills and updates. It didn't seem as easy as it should be anyway and I had the stress of wondering if I was going to have to ring them for my money back after my gig. As it turned out the issues resolved themselves and I was only charged for my electricity. It was about £15 for maybe 40 or 50 miles worth. Still a good deal cheaper than the parking would have been.
I mainly have written this blog for the people of the future, who will no doubt have a more efficient system of charging (and probably of transport) and will find this charmingly quaint - though a few more switched on people of the present day will also doubtless think that.
The gig was really lovely though in spite of this burden of worry. I had had no time to do any work on the show today as there had been too much admin and a radio interview to do and the kids had been off school a bit poorly. I hadn't really thought much about the show since the last try-out, but somehow it seemed to have taken a bit leap forward. It's flowing really nicely and though I do have a lot to do to make the second half work, it still felt like a show, rather than a try out. I have the whole of April to work on it so am hopeful I have something quite special. But who knows? And is anyone going to come and see it anyway? Not in some venues it seems.
You can get tickets here.
The quatrain has left the station
The poet tree has shed its leaves
No more verbal masturbation
My pen is down, a nation grieves.
Retro RHLSTP with Mark Watson is up here. Poor Mark has been bullied by both members of Lee and Herring about cider and his improv show, which he does not deserve. We were (I assume) his childhood heroes, so that makes it all the more tough for him.
