Olympic Security
Posted: Thu 12 July, 2012 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, London Olympics, News, Thoughts 3 Comments »Another day, another Olympian feat of fuckuppery.
Today, it’s the news that 3,500 extra troops are being drafted in for Olympic security, in addition to the 13,500 already allocated to the job.
And why is this happening? Because ‘security group’ G4S (who used to be, if memory serves, Securicor, then Group 4) can’t guarantee that they can supply the full quota of 10,000 guards that they’ve been paid £300m to provide.
Some of the extra soldiers have only recently returned from postings overseas. And I wonder how many of them have also recently been told that they’re surplus to requirements ?
Chipless
Posted: Wed 11 July, 2012 Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Cynicism, London Olympics Leave a comment »Following on from other thoughts about Olympian Idiocy with regard to branding, rules and regulations, the following one came up today…
Yep – you can’t even get chips, except for McDonalds’ chips. (Or at least McDonalds soggy wet horrible version of chips)
Now, what I want to know is why on earth anyone would actually want to go to a venue/event so Draconian in its branding and obsession with sponsorship ? (Apparently, wearing a t-shirt that features non-Olympics sponsors has also recently been banned in the Olympic Park) If I want to see anything Olympian, I’ll be able to do so from home, wearing what I want, eating what I want, without feeling ripped off, abused, or corraled.
Hmmm, come to think of it, maybe that’s the plan. To stop the transport infrastructure etc. from imploding, maybe all of this is A Plan by Boris to stop people from wanting to go and see the Olympics at the venues?
UPDATED 12/7/12 – According to the Guardian, the ban has now been lifted.
Phone Insurance – You couldn’t make this shit up
Posted: Mon 9 July, 2012 Filed under: 1BEM, Customer Services, Cynicism, Insurance, iPhone 2 Comments »This morning, I got three letters from CPP, the muppets company dealing with the claim for my knackered iPhone.
All three are dated the same day – 27th June! Nearly two weeks to get sent out – and all ‘signed’ by the same person. Combined, they make for a brilliant record of how CPP handle things. Well, it’s hilarious if you’re not receiving them.
- Letter 1 – “We need more information – proof of purchase, and a more detailed description of what happened”
- Letter 2 – “We need a more detailed description of what happened” – guess this means they’ve received the proof of purchase ?
- Letter 3 – “Claim denied”. So they’ve received a more detailed description? Or did the one in the initial phone call suddenly suffice?
And bear in mind, this is all two weeks ago – it’s already been appealed, and complained about.
I wonder what excuse they’ll use for these letters, and the fact it’s taken two weeks to receive them…
Motorway Signage
Posted: Thu 5 July, 2012 Filed under: Design, Driving, Thoughts Leave a comment »And again, some thoughts about the M1 during the works. This time, it’s about the new electronic signage…
Motorway signage (as well as other road signs) always used to be designed for clarity, so they could be read and understood at distance/speed. However, this doesn’t seem to apply so much to the latest generation of electronic signs.
There are two in particular that are nearly impossible to differentiate at speed.
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You can see the problem, I expect – in both cases, the yellow ‘information’ consists of, effectively, a triangle of colour. From a distance, you can’t tell which is which.
It’s probably not massively relevant, I suppose, as both signs indicate “You’re going to be here for a while”. But still, they’re hard to differentiate.
Communal Spirt – Or Lack Thereof
Posted: Wed 4 July, 2012 Filed under: Domestic, People, Thoughts 1 Comment »Where I live now, the arrangements for the bins are a bit awkward. (You can tell this post’s going to be interesting, can’t you?) Basically, it’s a row of terraced houses- almost like a throwback to Manchester days – with an alleyway at the back connecting them all. The bins are stored in a communal hidey-hole roughly mid-way down the terrace. I’m at one end of the row, the street-access is at the other end.
However, it seems like no-one actually puts those bins out. The bin collection men certainly do fuck-all with them – I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by that, anyway. But equally, no-one from the row of houses does anything with them – rubbish goes in, but the bins don’t go out.
So at the moment I seem to have taken on the role, making sure they go out in time, the right bins on the right day, and all that crap. I don’t actually mind, it’s just one of those things, but it does sort of annoy me that (as with many things) there seems to be this perception of always “Oh, someone else will do it”.
In this case, they will. It’s probably a selfish thing, just making sure that my rubbish gets dealt with in a timely and non-stinky manner, as I’ve no intention of having to deal with vermin issues and the like. But I do think it’s sad that communal bins aren’t dealt with in a communal way.
Maybe I’m just more idealistic than I’d thought.
Removing Bridges
Posted: Mon 2 July, 2012 Filed under: Change, Commuting, Driving, People 2 Comments »Over the weekend, the M1 near me (well, my entire commuting route) was closed to facilitate the removal of a bridge that is now un-used. It’s all part of the works on that stretch of the M1, and I’ve been watching as it all changes. Luckily I wasn’t going on that road over the weekend, or the detour would’ve been impressive.
The new bridge opened in May, and the last month has been spent removing all the sliproads to the old bridge, leaving it all isolated. By Friday they’d got rid of everything except the span of the bridge crossing the M1. And this morning, it’s completely gone, including the centre stanchions, and the massive block they stood on. It’s actually pretty impressive, seeing the speed it must have been demolished and removed.
Indeed, if you went past it for the first time today, you’d never really know there’d been a bridge there at all. There are no indicators of its existence at all.
Personally, I think the new junction is currently quite dangerous, although I think that’s also heavily related to the fact that people driving to the 50mph average speed limit turn into complete fuckwits. We’ll see how it works out as time goes on, the roadworks are removed, and normality fights to re-assert itself again.