I smell spicy brains

I’m not sure that “stolen” is a valid term in this context, but the stories over the weekend about the brains of mentally ill people and suicides being removed and stored for medical research is still pretty horrendous. Obviously if all these people had given their permission for their parts to be used, there’d be no problems, but instead it’s been done without asking permission.

It’s like another case of Alder Hey and their own organ retention problems.

Vindication

I know that regular readers will just tut and groan when they realise this is another (hopefully the final for a while) installment of the bank saga. Tough. *Grin*

Having launched a full formal complaint on Saturday about the lack of communication and messages coming from the bank that shall not be named since my business account opened, I received a call and message this morning from the Business “Manager” I’ve been dealing with. Quelle surprise

Now, she’s obviously either recording the call, or got her direct manager listening in to the call – I don’t particularly care which. Allegedly she (I’m not going to say the name, for obvious reasons) has been leaving me “lots” of messages, but has absolutely no answer to the question “so why did you not call the mobile number I’ve left every time?” – but no, she’s left lots of messages. No record, of course, of when any of these calls have taken place. And she’s replied to my email that I sent too, but has no record of when it was sent. I think she was then quite upset when I could tell her that I sent her the email on the 1st of May at 9.39am – obviously, one of us has been keeping records. *Grin* (Fact is, I keep the majority of my sent emails for at least six months)

The suggestion that perhaps a better contact management database would be a good idea for the business managers really didn’t go down well – or maybe it was me saying that I could do the system for them, as I’ve done them for other large organisations. Far be it from me to stoop to petty insinuations and suggestions, just to illustrate a point.

She’s “most upset” that I’ve launched a complaint without giving a chance for her side of the story to be put – I was unreasonable to turn up on a Saturday when I knew she wouldn’t be there. Which conveniently ignored the fact I’ve also been in the branch on Tuesday and Thursday to try and see her, and left messages on both occasions that if I didn’t receive a call by the end of the working week, I’d be launching a formal complaint. When I pointed this out, the only response was “Oh”.
Anyway, the complaint stands – but we appear to have sorted out most of the issues now. We’ll see how things go from here on in.

Weird codenames

Maybe this is just me, but why the hell was the British mole in the IRA codenamed Stakeknife? I could understand (ish) being codenamed “Steak-knife”, but “Stakeknife” just sounds like a typo, from one name to the other.

Still, what would I know about the wond’rous logic of our security forces?

Famous last words

It had to happen sometime. After all my own blatherings about convenience food and so on, I finally did it. For the first time that I can remember, I’ve made a complete bugger’s muddle of cooking rice. I have no idea what I did wrong, but it was a congealed starchy mess. Still edible, but compared to normal, it was definitely a fuck-up.

Tomorrow I’ll be off to Tesco to buy some easy cook rice.

Blanks would’ve been more apt

I can’t believe that royal protection police can ‘accidentally’ fire a gun while unloading it – particularly when their protectee was in the building. (Accounts vary as to whether he was in the next room or not) Still – even if it was ‘accidental’, you’d have thought they could have been more accurate. *Grin*

May Day Project – kind of.

The Mayday Project was due to happen today – various people around the world all taking pictures of their days. I’ve sort of half-participated (typical), and the photos from today’s stroll through Manchester are happily sitting here. Enjoy, or be bored by them – it’s up to you.

Tribute or plagiarism

While wandering through Manchester today, I took a couple of photos of Urbis (again), and a bit later wandered through one of the shopping arcades. In the window of one of the shops was an image of New York’s Flatiron Building. At that point, you have to wonder whether the architect of Urbis was really being inspirational, or whether it was more of an (ahem) tribute to an older generation of building. There’s certainly a wide range of similarities between the two designs. However, for me it doesn’t detract form either of them – they’re both stunning bits of architecture.