Waiting

Posted: Wed 27 February, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic, Getting Organised, House Work | Leave a comment »

One of the things most guaranteed to drive me crackers (other than the animals in the house, obviously) is when people say they’ll arrive at a certain time, and then not doing so. Particularly when we’re bloody well paying them to be here.

The current plumber is a case in point.

While the work he does is actually bloody good, saying “I’ll be there by 9am” and still not being here (currently) an hour later really fucking annoys me. And fair enough, he’ll probably stay later than 5pm too, but still – I’ve got stuff that I need to go out and do today, and if I’d know he wasn’t going to be here ’til 10am, I’d have gone and done that before he got here.

I suppose I should know all this by now – it was the same last week as well – but all the same, it’s bloody annoying, to say the least.

Maths

Posted: Tue 26 February, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Cynicism, Geeky, Own Business, Work-related | 1 Comment »

Every so often, I realise just how bad I can be at Maths. Today (and, in fairness, last night) were perfect examples of that.

I’ve been writing the PHP to do a bundle of reports, and one of them involved figuring out the return-on-investment (ROI) for a given contract. It’s a simple percentage, yet could I get it right first time? Could I knickers. OK, some of the problems were with getting the information out of the database in the first place as well, but all the same, it led to me bashing my head into the desk for a good hour just on getting the sums right and then the percentages.

And the real bummer is that I’m still not convinced I’ve got it right…

Updated : Ah, got it sussed now, and all seems to be working fine. Funny how the simple things are always the hardest to fix, isn’t it?

0844

Posted: Sat 23 February, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism | 1 Comment »

While most people are familiar with the 0845 “local call” numbers, there’s now a new number in the same range, and this one is 0844, which (if you didn’t know already) is charged at 5p per minute .

For me the 0844 number is kind of weird, as it’s also the phone code for the area I grew up in. So at the moment I still think “Oh, they’re close to where I grew up” when I see a company advertising an 0844 number.

And yes, I know, it hasn’t been 0844 for a long time now – but I wonder whether the residents of that area will start complaining when idiots dial 01844 instead of 0844 , and get a number that already exists…

Getting Away With It

Posted: Fri 22 February, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Cynicism, News, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

I’ve written about a similar subject before, but I have to say that the news yesterday infuriated me. To me, the fact that some utter cockwad can film himself driving at 130+mph using his mobile phone, brag about it by uploading the video to YouTube, get prosecuted and get away with a four-month suspended sentence and an 18 months ban (oh, let’s not forget the 210 hours of community service) is just astonishing. It shouldn’t be, with the knowledge of the guy who drove at 172mph only getting a 10-week jail sentence, but it is.

I don’t understand the mentality of someone who films themselves speeding by taking one hand off the wheel, and filming it with a mobile phone, to me that’s a charge of dangerous driving right there. Doing it at 130+mph, that’s another charge. Posting it up to YouTube? OK, Terminal stupidity isn’t a criminal offence (although sometimes I think it should be) but still, I do think the sentence is still completely out of whack with the offence(s).

Brits

Posted: Thu 21 February, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Cynicism, Music, Thoughts | 3 Comments »

I’m just wondering, how did Mark Ronson get ‘Best British Male’ at the Brits over the other non-entities nominees, Jamie T, Mika, Newton Faulkner, Richard Hawley ?

Now don’t get me wrong, I really like Ronson’s “Version” album for the most part – but he’s still more the producer/creator/rearranger than the performer. All the vocals are done by other singers, rather than by Ronson.

When all’s said and done, Mark Ronson is still “just” a DJ. And because of that, I don’t really understand how he’s “Best British Male”.

But maybe that’s just me.

No Water

Posted: Thu 21 February, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Cynicism, Domestic | Leave a comment »

Comedy moment of yesterday?

The plumber, having been working in the bathroom all day, chopping out pipes, getting rid of old taps and the like, turns the mains water back on.

Nothing. Not a drop.

Befuddlement and mild panic ensue, along with explanations that this just can’t happen, it can’t be airlocked as it’s the mains water, there’s no reason for it to have happened, so on, so forth.

I wander round to the neighbour’s place, and just check whether he’s got any water. “Nope, it turned off about an hour ago”.

Turns out there’d been a big mains burst in one of the villages a few miles away, which resulted in no water to us. (or the rest of the village, or the next village, or some of Attleborough)

Valentine’s

Posted: Thu 14 February, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Charm School, Customer Services, Cynicism | 1 Comment »

Another year, another February 14th. Another dollop of crap overpriced cards, flowers, and blah blah.

And another year with the title bar image of Al Capone’s Valentine’s Day Massacre. My kind of Feb 14 celebration.

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