Tag: rant

July 24, 2012
I had to fly out to the Netherlands last week. It was a last minute thing, so I ended up buying Euros at London City Airport, using my personal VISA Debit card (I would claim back expenses later).

Because it was a Debit card, and not a Credit card, it meant I wouldn’t pay any additional charges outside of exchange rates and commission. Right?

July 14, 2012

G4S

Listening to an interview on Radio 4 with Nick Buckles of G4S.

He has said a large part of why they only identified their inability to provide sufficient numbers in the last “9-10 days” was because the people they were employing were only available for training for a limited period. He said some people were taking time off work, in order to work the games, and others were students who had their studies and exams to work around.

July 7, 2012
Or how not to do customer service…

About a week ago, my electric shower went wrong. I lost pressure out of the shower head, and water started gushing out of a hole in the bottom of the unit. I was initially alarmed, but on inspection, I could see this hole was deliberately made, and therefore meant for water to come out of, under certain circumstances.

July 6, 2012
Am a little bit peeved that Google have announced the demise of iGoogle. I’ve used it for some time, and find it handy to have certain bits of information – calendar, to-do list, and certain RSS feeds I follow – come up on screen whenever I do a search.

All of the gadgets I have on iGoogle have alternatives, but it is the habit of seeing them there as a reminder several times a day, that helps me keep on top of things I want to follow.

June 25, 2012
As those of you who know me will know, I hang out on a couple of BBQ forums. Generally speaking they are a source of good information, but there are two kinds of posters who I find frustating.

1) Someone who comes on asking for advice on buying a decent grill on a budget. They get lots of good suggestions, from a variety of knowledgeable posters, all which meet their budget. They then later post that they went to B&Q or Homebase and bought a piece of crap that you know isn’t going to make it through the summer. Why did they post asking for advice in the first time? I’m not sure.

May 23, 2012
January 27, 2012
A few days ago, I commented on livejournal that I had been feeling sleepy lately, and wondered if my CPAP needed adjusting.

Today I had an appointment at Papworth hospital respiratory sleep centre. It was my annual appointment, where they check me out, and my machine, but I thought I could raise my issues and get them addressed.

July 5, 2011
For some time, now, we have been admonished not to use disposable plastic carrier bags. The supermarkets’ response to this has been to come out with a range of inexpensive multiple use bags (some of which are really nice – I like the classic Tesco hemp-like bag, myself), while discouraging customers from using the disposable bags. Tesco does this by offering additional loyalty points for bag re-use; M&S does it by charging a ridiculous amount for the disposable alternative; Morrisons does it by making the bags so small and thin, they are virtually useless.

So riddle me this. While all of this is going on, why am I received more and more cheap plastic bags through my letterbox, with requests for clothes donations from everybody from the Sally Army to Save the Children? In the last week, I have received 9 sack sized plastic bags, and this is not exceptional. That is far more plastic than I would have ever have used in carrier bags before I started carrying a “for-life” shopping bag.

May 26, 2011
A couple of months back, I made a post about Santander. This will hopefully be the last post I ever make about them.

A recap – having been a happy customer with National Girobank for most of my working life, when it got privatised and sold to Alliance & Leicester, I considered changing to another bank. However A&L didn’t actually change much about the account, and served it well, so I stayed.

May 9, 2011
Upgrading to Firefox 4, I expected there to be a little pain, as I got used to any changes they made.

But whose bright idea was it to reverse the order of “Open in a new tab” and “Open in a new window” when you right click a link?

April 10, 2011
I had cause to use the 111 NHS non-emergency service yesterday, when whatever is wrong with me seemed to get worse, with periodic pins and needles and numbness in my hands and feet. My GP had said to come back to him immediately if anything changed. As I am in Lincolnshire, I am in the new 111 service trial area; in fact, the 111 service is now my GP’s Practice out of hours number, replacing the traditional “on call” doctor at evenings and weekends.

The person I spoke to – who admitted to having no medical training – was not interested in listening to a (brief) history of my condition, but only wanted to know my immediate symptoms.

March 24, 2011