Saturday, we head out for two weeks in Spain (staying with the other halves family).
To be honest, I could do with a bit of a break, although it has ended up landing while we are really busy in terms of work, etc - so very much looking foward to it.
Will attempt to write at least 1-2 blog posts while we are out there (most likely whinging about how rubbish the journey has been, or how pants something at Gatwick is). Will also endeavour to smuggle back some sunshine in the luggage.
Thursday, 23 April 2009
Wednesday, 22 April 2009
Blog posts and work?
Just noticed how my number of blog posts has tailed off this year.
Wonder if this reflects that things have been getting steadily busier?
January - 25, Feburary - 9, March - 7, April - 4 including this one!
Wonder if this reflects that things have been getting steadily busier?
January - 25, Feburary - 9, March - 7, April - 4 including this one!
Northern Rock? Failed? Well we knew that..
.. but!
OK, we all know Northern Rock have already failed quite spectacularly, largely due to the BBC's social experimentation (don't get me started), however, our mortgage in the UK is with them - and I called to get a statement of mortgage interest, for my Jersey tax return.
The first one didn't arrive - I blame Royal Mail for this. Fair enough. Used to that.
The second one did. It says:
"I confirm that the gross amount of interest charged to your mortgage loan from 1 Jan 2008 to 31 December 2008."
You'll probably read that once and go 'Yep - fine.' - read it again.
It seems to be missing one piece of information. Yup. The amount!
DOH.
Third time lucky?
OK, we all know Northern Rock have already failed quite spectacularly, largely due to the BBC's social experimentation (don't get me started), however, our mortgage in the UK is with them - and I called to get a statement of mortgage interest, for my Jersey tax return.
The first one didn't arrive - I blame Royal Mail for this. Fair enough. Used to that.
The second one did. It says:
"I confirm that the gross amount of interest charged to your mortgage loan from 1 Jan 2008 to 31 December 2008."
You'll probably read that once and go 'Yep - fine.' - read it again.
It seems to be missing one piece of information. Yup. The amount!
DOH.
Third time lucky?
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
Barnardos: Fail
Quick gripe from yesterdays brief after-picking-up-the-mrs-from-work dip into the shops.
We quite often go round the charity shops - although we realised we hadn't actually been into the Barnardos near the Royal Sq, ever. So we nipped in.
It was bad enough that they had a "Steps" cd.
It was worse that they were selling it for £0.99
It was even worse that it was obviously a copy, which someone had kindly donated! Even the cover was faded, and printed on a cheap inkjet printer. Oooops!
We quite often go round the charity shops - although we realised we hadn't actually been into the Barnardos near the Royal Sq, ever. So we nipped in.
It was bad enough that they had a "Steps" cd.
It was worse that they were selling it for £0.99
It was even worse that it was obviously a copy, which someone had kindly donated! Even the cover was faded, and printed on a cheap inkjet printer. Oooops!
Monday, 20 April 2009
Robots?
Wow. Sorry folks, haven't blogged for ages!
April has been a bit hectic so far, to put it mildly. Still. I'm going to try and clear up some of my 'blog post queue' this week, as we're off on holiday for two weeks on saturday, and I don't really want to leave a month long blank space here!
If you have FireFox, you need to put this: "about:robots" into the url bar and hit enter (no quotes).
Somebody seems to have smoked something they shouldn't during the development phase, I think..
April has been a bit hectic so far, to put it mildly. Still. I'm going to try and clear up some of my 'blog post queue' this week, as we're off on holiday for two weeks on saturday, and I don't really want to leave a month long blank space here!
If you have FireFox, you need to put this: "about:robots" into the url bar and hit enter (no quotes).
Somebody seems to have smoked something they shouldn't during the development phase, I think..
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
Good vs Evil personality test
Note: I am not a psychologist, although my other half often suggests I'm mental (and possibly in need of one)!
What sort of person are you, though?
Two sides fight a battle. One side wins. The is scrubbed out completely. Did the good guys win?
Optimist: The good guys won, because they deserved to.
Pessimist: Everybody lost.
Realist: History is written by the winner - so of course they're the good guys (eventually).
Feel free to make up and add your own types! :)
What sort of person are you, though?
Two sides fight a battle. One side wins. The is scrubbed out completely. Did the good guys win?
Optimist: The good guys won, because they deserved to.
Pessimist: Everybody lost.
Realist: History is written by the winner - so of course they're the good guys (eventually).
Feel free to make up and add your own types! :)
Thursday, 26 March 2009
Barclays Bank - They suck, incase you didn't know
Yeah. Barclays.
I was going to write a furious rant about this, but I have been busy, and the fury has now fled.
On Wednesday, the day BEFORE my trip to London, I wanted to change some Jersey money into English notes - not a complicated exercise, but makes it easier when you are on the mainland.
So I popped into Barclays, and asked at the Bureau de Change - this seemed logical to me.
"Oh." Said the surly woman at the counter. "Uh. We don't really do that here. This is the Bureau de Change.".
OK. My french is rusty. However, I'm pretty sure that 'bureau de change' means "somewhere you can exchange money". So I had a bit of a moan.
"Well.", she tried again. "Do you have a Barclays account?". She had clearly had enough of me by now - I was in town doing the shopping, so not wearing my sunday best - and if care is not taken I can lean towards the scruffy. And I have a baby face. This causes all sorts of issues.
"Well yeah." I said. "But it's only a business one - and frankly after the last couple of years, the service from Barclays has been so abysmal - something which is typified by the fact that you're refusing to change 30 quid for English notes - it's not one which I plan to keep open for much longer."
She was a bit taken aback by this. Perhaps because I was waving my business delta card about a bit. I didn't feel it was out of order though - their Business service is pretty damn crap - and unfortunately she had hit on a sore point.
"Oh. Well. I suppose you could go up to the other counter and they might do it for you."
The other counter. In the same bank. Ah. Through that queue of approximately twenty other pissed off 'customers'? Um.. Uh..
"Oh, no thank you..", I said, probably far louder than I should. I added my parting shot: "I've got to go to the Market anyway, I'm sure the guy in the greengrocers will swap it for me - he actually gives a damn about his customers.." and walked off, feeling slightly less angry. At least one of the women in the queue was sniggering by now.
I am a bit ambivalent on this point though. Either:
1. It's unfair to have a go at the people 'on the front line' of large companies with crap service, because it's not their fault.
OR
2. It's absolutely fair, because they could choose to work elsewhere, or they could try to improve the service - rather than being jobsworths.
Given that I run my own business, and try damn hard to look after our customers - even if it's a bit inconvenient - I tend to err on the side of #2.
Rantette over.
I was going to write a furious rant about this, but I have been busy, and the fury has now fled.
On Wednesday, the day BEFORE my trip to London, I wanted to change some Jersey money into English notes - not a complicated exercise, but makes it easier when you are on the mainland.
So I popped into Barclays, and asked at the Bureau de Change - this seemed logical to me.
"Oh." Said the surly woman at the counter. "Uh. We don't really do that here. This is the Bureau de Change.".
OK. My french is rusty. However, I'm pretty sure that 'bureau de change' means "somewhere you can exchange money". So I had a bit of a moan.
"Well.", she tried again. "Do you have a Barclays account?". She had clearly had enough of me by now - I was in town doing the shopping, so not wearing my sunday best - and if care is not taken I can lean towards the scruffy. And I have a baby face. This causes all sorts of issues.
"Well yeah." I said. "But it's only a business one - and frankly after the last couple of years, the service from Barclays has been so abysmal - something which is typified by the fact that you're refusing to change 30 quid for English notes - it's not one which I plan to keep open for much longer."
She was a bit taken aback by this. Perhaps because I was waving my business delta card about a bit. I didn't feel it was out of order though - their Business service is pretty damn crap - and unfortunately she had hit on a sore point.
"Oh. Well. I suppose you could go up to the other counter and they might do it for you."
The other counter. In the same bank. Ah. Through that queue of approximately twenty other pissed off 'customers'? Um.. Uh..
"Oh, no thank you..", I said, probably far louder than I should. I added my parting shot: "I've got to go to the Market anyway, I'm sure the guy in the greengrocers will swap it for me - he actually gives a damn about his customers.." and walked off, feeling slightly less angry. At least one of the women in the queue was sniggering by now.
I am a bit ambivalent on this point though. Either:
1. It's unfair to have a go at the people 'on the front line' of large companies with crap service, because it's not their fault.
OR
2. It's absolutely fair, because they could choose to work elsewhere, or they could try to improve the service - rather than being jobsworths.
Given that I run my own business, and try damn hard to look after our customers - even if it's a bit inconvenient - I tend to err on the side of #2.
Rantette over.
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