rARsh!

An end to the matter

I am pleased to confirm that I have received the parcel sent by recorded delivery on 31st July.

I have also now received the parcel you sent on the 30th July by first class post. I shall, of course, be returning the duplicate items to you on Monday as I’ve no wish to have two of each item when I only ordered and paid for one.

Incidentally, I do feel that your comment to Paypal “Customer claims they were lost in post” is somewhat misleading given that my dispute was raised four days before you posted the first parcel and 11 days after you’d first claimed to have posted the order (unless, of course, you’ve now sent me three or more parcels).

Twunts

Misleading update

Lyle is correct in that the “delayed” item in my order was a phone battery.

Since I wrote the last post I’ve still received nothing and my notification of a dispute via Paypal didn’t produce any response from the bastard in question (so I’ve escalated it to a claim). Hopefully Paypal will review what I wrote and give me my money back.

Let’s face it, if the order had been posted he’d have responded to that effect pretty darned quickly. Bastard.

Slightly misleading

“Ah, hello. I placed an order with you last week and had an email to say it had been sent on Tuesday but there’s been no sign of it.”

“What’s your order number?”

“66666”

“Ah, yes. We were out of stock of the BST-39 but they’ve come in now and all the orders are in the post today.”

“So when the website and email said it had been despatched on the 15th … ?”

“Yes, it had been sent for despatch, but we didn’t send it because we didn’t have all the things you ordered.”

“I see. Do you feel that the email and message on the website might be just a little misleading.”

“No. How?”

“Well, it’s … oh, never mind.”

Will my order arrive tomorrow? It had bloody better do. Harrumph.

They (Don’t) Work For You

I am indebted to an update - courtesy of TheyWorkForYou - on the antics of my supposed representative in Parliament, the Right Dishonourable Christopher Fraser.

His contribution to the Protection of Bats and News debate on 24th June was, I feel, telling and I applaud the hours of work on his part which much have gone into his preparation.

See for yourself.

Twunt.

Money well spent

<wakes grouchy from a sleep>
£10 million to investigate why two people where weren’t wearing seatbelts while travelling in a car being steered by a drunk driver at speed through a city pursued by the 20th century’s incarnation of the History Monks died?

That’s got to be value for money, doesn’t it?

Incidentally, if Phil the Greek does have connections with hitmen and the like, can he please do something about al Fayed before he wastes any more of taxpayers’ fucking money?

That is all.
<settles back down>

Bits and, indeed, pieces

Well, I’ve told Tall Andy what’ll be happening once I get a financial cushion in place - my plan to hand over the resignation this evening to tie in with the new structure which falls into place in a month’s time was shelved. Soon, though. Oh yes.

Woman warned me about Kirsti and her preference for drinking straight from the tap. To my shame I’d assumed she was exaggerating but I’ve been proven wrong. In fact, on Tuesday evening, the silly madam sat in the sink as I was finishing brushing my teeth, so I left the tap on for a while for her to drink her fill.

When I returned I found she’d been sitting over the plug and was waist deep in water - quite happily so, I hasten to add. My, how I laughed. She ran off when I grabbed a towel so I assumed she’d sort herself out and went to bed.

Five minutes later I was joined by a soaking wet cat. It’s like one of those genie’s wishes that’s been twisted …

I have established that she’s not too fond of hot water, though, as she soon changed her mind after joining me in the shower one morning.

That’s one weird feline you’ve given me, Woman!

The N800 tablet is bloody marvellous. It makes me wish the bus journey from the Park and Ride to the bus station was longer. Who knows - once I’ve handed in my letter I may switch to the train for my last few weeks.

Tomorrow’s potentially Kirsti’s first day outside (not for a lack of trying on her part this week - both the postie and a meter reader had the front door slammed in their face before I’d ushered her to safety, opened the door and explained/apologised). I foresee an interesting time to be had by all.

If we tolerate this, then your children will be next

As I mentioned in passing on Thursday, we’ve had another reorganisation at work. This time they’ve excelled themselves.

As a result of this restructuring I find that I will, from April, be reporting to one of two managers both of whom are, I’m sorry to say, idiots. Yes, they’ve broken up the Lionel:Tall Andy dream ticket.

Now I’m being unfair to whichever of the managers I’ll be reporting (or Tweedledum and Tweedledumber as I’ve christened them (which is probably unfair too)). After all, I have ultimate confidence in the Evil Overlords’ ability to consistently choose the best person for each rôle. Of course I do. Perhaps I’m just bitter because I wasn’t given the option of applying for Voluntary Redundancy but then not all of those who had the option and asked for VR were given it, one of whom was allegedly told they’d not be allowed to leave because they had too much knowledge of something or other. If that’s the criteria, then, I’ll never get VR.

So what should I do? I was sorely tempted to confront the department’s glorious leader on Thursday and demonstrate to him beyond any possibility of misunderstanding my suggested alternative location for my job (although this would need him to remove his trousery garments) but common sense - and Tall Andy - prevailed. I’ve slept on it since and discussed it with young Kirsti. She thinks I should stay at home so that I can be at her beck and call but Woman’s warned me that I’ll not see madam once summer comes and she’s allowed out so I’m treating the cat’s impartiality with a pinch of salt.

The fact remains, though, that we’re going through restructures at an average of one every year at worst. In fact, we’re going through department heads at much the same rate, each one having their own idea of what we should be doing and how. Up until now I’ve been hanging on hoping for VR at each reorganisation but it seems the Overlords are getting wise to this. After all, why pay people thousands of pounds to leave when they’re getting close to walking out anyway? It just doesn’t make economic sense, does it?

My evenings of contemplation have reduced the chance of me telling them to shove it from 100% and taking the Boss with me to a mere 95% or so (+/- 5%) but I’m going to give it until the end of the month before I make a final decision*. After all, the new structure starts from 1st April (a telling choice of date in my opinion) and it’d be very considerate of me to tie in my departure with the new structure, wouldn’t it?

In other news, though, I’ve got a Nokia N800 and it’s bloody brilliant. It’ll pick up a ridiculous number of WiFi hotspots - far more than any laptop I’ve ever had - and will even connect to the Norwhag OpenZone network at my desk when the office’s street isn’t even in the official coverage area. When paired with a neat 3G phone it’ll connect from anywhere I can’t find a free hotspot. An 800 x 480 pixel screen means that I get an almost-normal internet experience (although I do need to use the built-in zoom on some pages). Bloody marvellous, that’s what it is.

It doesn’t seem to like some of the scripts in WordPress, though, but I can install Maemo WordPy to get around that. I think I’ll be returning to the N800 soon as I find more wonderful features.

Overall, then, it’s been a bit of a 50:50 week!

* Of course if someone from the Overlords find this and recognises me that’ll probably make the decision for me anyway

An hour and forty one minutes

I’ve had “The Step-son Experience”.

Anyone would think his birthday was imminent.

Shame I can’t take a hint.