This week I have dug out all my winter woollies and put the heating on full.

Daughter, like most teenagers, is happy to carry on going to school wearing just a blouse and skirt, insisting she doesn't need a sweatshirt or coat.

I think it's got more to do with her hating the sweatshirt I bought (too big and baggy) and disliking the coat (too boring and sensible).

Consequently, she prefers to freeze rather than risk looking uncool.

I remember doing the same at her age, while my mum ran down the road behind me waving my regulation macintosh (seriously uncool, boring, sensible and baggy) over her head.

Talking of clothing, I finally won my long battle with the shop I bought my washing machine from.

You may remember it broke at the beginning of August and until two weeks ago the company still hadn't been able to send an engineer who could arrive and have with them the parts to fix it.

I had got to the point where I knew the customer services centre and head office numbers by heart, and was on first name terms with many of their staff.

Finally, after weeks and weeks of daughter and I spending our Saturdays in the launderette, we have now got a new washing machine, courtesy of the company. One success, although it has taken long enough.

Unfortunately, we have moved on to another battle. BT has put up some telegraph poles on some common ground near the back of our house.

This means we now have a telephone wire right across the middle of our back garden.

As it's too high to hang the washing on and looks unsightly we don't really want it.

I took a deep breath and phoned the complaints department. We were really cross as nobody asked our permission.

Unless BT has suddenly started employing a team of trapeze artists I can't see how it got a 60ft coil of wire across the 16ft width of the garden without trespassing.

A 'field officer' came to look. He just looked and then suggested smugly that BT could do what it wanted.

This has made me very cross. I couldn't string a wire across my neighbours' gardens without at least asking first, so I don't see why the rules should be any different for big companies.