I am fuming, steaming, spitting fire, yup I'm angry and it's not often I 'do' angry.
My cell phone bill landed on my doormat this morning and somewhat stunning it was too......well over twice my normal charges and most items unsolicited!
A while back I stupidly fell for the 'crazy frog' advertising and feeling full of amusement I ordered said item from it's distributor, a delightful company with it seems no integrity what_ so_ ever.....yes, you guessed it JAMSTER. What kind of damn fool woman am I?
Subsequently Jamster have repeatedly sent me text messages offering more of their products, screensavers, ringtones and the like. I have never downloaded anything from them, in fact the initial and only item I requested failed to arrive, but none the less I have been charged............and at extortionate rates into the bargain!
This morning I have spent over an hour on the phone sorting out this fiasco. It seems that if one orders an item from this company a 'club' is unwittingly 'joined' allowing for these messages to be sent. Apparently if one reads the small print, though where exactly that is available is not clear, it allows for this to happen. Ok, I can live with the odd text message but it's not as simple as that. The messages they send out to members of this less than illustrious club, merely offering their products are charged, regardless of whether one chooses to download an item!!!! WTF!
The only thing I can offer in their defence is that having spent more time than I cared to embroiled in an argument on the phone this morning, they have at least agreed to refund me the charges.............though it will take them 3 weeks to do so. It sure as hell didn't take them that long to charge me!
I now await said cheque to arrive from Germany, somehow I feel this may not be the end of this, my faith in the agreed refund arriving is not high!
Friday, 11 February 2005
Thursday, 10 February 2005
Cat loving queen
My, er..... loosely themed 'valentines' header images of the last few days seem to have caused a small problem (see here) for Deanna who's daughter the 'seven year old cat loving queen hangs' on her shoulder to see what 'the cat lady' has done today! Ooopsss.
So this is especially for you 'seven year old cat loving queen', in the hope that you will forgive me!
So this is especially for you 'seven year old cat loving queen', in the hope that you will forgive me!
The quarterly hair horror
The dreaded three monthly hair appointment was today! Regulars will know my dislike of this necessary evil, I have blogged it on more than one occasion. I hate it, nay detest it, the faffing, the inane conversation centered around holidays and hair colour drives me demented, luke warm instant coffee and hairdresser egos are just not my thing.
Today's foray into the nightmare that is the hair salon was, it transpired, amusingly different. This establishment is for a small town, reasonably upmarket and at least boasts well qualified stylists, post 1960's decor, (unlike it's counterparts in the town, that favour the blue rinse brigade) and a comfortingly full appointment book.
A rare calm greeted me upon my arrival, only one or two clients instead of the usual melee where apparent and thankfully my regular stylist 'Fiona' was ready and waiting for me. As time has gone by she seems to have learnt of my dislike for the usual bowing and scraping afforded clients as the norm and has relaxed a little. She knows my dread of the backwash and instructed 'hair washing junior' appropriately, to only 'wash once' and 'no conditioner', thereby affording me an early escape from this neck breaking contraption.
As time passed and she snip, snipped away we chatted comfortably about all manner of subjects, we giggled and joked and all was looking well. At this point things became a little strange, we noticed suddenly that we were alone, the other staff had all 'disappeared'. Little did we know but this hair appointment was about to become like something from an episode of a poorly written soap opera.
'Go find out where they have gone' I suggested and laughing she disappeared into the back of the building, leaving me alone and half done. Returning moments later, shaking and red faced she reported there had been a disagreement of sorts and the absent staff where embroiled in an argument concerning the perpetrator of a large number of 'strange' phone calls they had been receiving of late. This argument carried on, intermittently spilling over into the front of house when one or other of these girls appeared, pretended to be working and was then summoned back by one colleague or another in hissing whispers.
Amid all of this and without warning 'young hairwashing junior' suddenly appeared in floods of tears....enough is enough was Fiona's response and amid apologies she ushered said hairwasher briskly out of sight. She returned minutes later, hairwasher had not it seemed become involved in the cat fight as suspected, instead she had just been dumped by her boyfriend of many months..........via text message..... Nice guy...... and was still wailing uncontrollably from somewhere out of sight but most certainly not out of earshot!
Professional it was not, but damned entertaining it all was. Ok, so the luke warm instant coffee was still appalling, no change there, but the conversation was improved and the entertainment was certainly more amusing than that normally provided during the dreaded salon visit!
Oh....and in the end I did get my hair cut!
Today's foray into the nightmare that is the hair salon was, it transpired, amusingly different. This establishment is for a small town, reasonably upmarket and at least boasts well qualified stylists, post 1960's decor, (unlike it's counterparts in the town, that favour the blue rinse brigade) and a comfortingly full appointment book.
A rare calm greeted me upon my arrival, only one or two clients instead of the usual melee where apparent and thankfully my regular stylist 'Fiona' was ready and waiting for me. As time has gone by she seems to have learnt of my dislike for the usual bowing and scraping afforded clients as the norm and has relaxed a little. She knows my dread of the backwash and instructed 'hair washing junior' appropriately, to only 'wash once' and 'no conditioner', thereby affording me an early escape from this neck breaking contraption.
As time passed and she snip, snipped away we chatted comfortably about all manner of subjects, we giggled and joked and all was looking well. At this point things became a little strange, we noticed suddenly that we were alone, the other staff had all 'disappeared'. Little did we know but this hair appointment was about to become like something from an episode of a poorly written soap opera.
'Go find out where they have gone' I suggested and laughing she disappeared into the back of the building, leaving me alone and half done. Returning moments later, shaking and red faced she reported there had been a disagreement of sorts and the absent staff where embroiled in an argument concerning the perpetrator of a large number of 'strange' phone calls they had been receiving of late. This argument carried on, intermittently spilling over into the front of house when one or other of these girls appeared, pretended to be working and was then summoned back by one colleague or another in hissing whispers.
Amid all of this and without warning 'young hairwashing junior' suddenly appeared in floods of tears....enough is enough was Fiona's response and amid apologies she ushered said hairwasher briskly out of sight. She returned minutes later, hairwasher had not it seemed become involved in the cat fight as suspected, instead she had just been dumped by her boyfriend of many months..........via text message..... Nice guy...... and was still wailing uncontrollably from somewhere out of sight but most certainly not out of earshot!
Professional it was not, but damned entertaining it all was. Ok, so the luke warm instant coffee was still appalling, no change there, but the conversation was improved and the entertainment was certainly more amusing than that normally provided during the dreaded salon visit!
Oh....and in the end I did get my hair cut!
Wednesday, 9 February 2005
Happiness is a leaking tap
Since the age of 20 until I moved here to Scotland I owned the home I lived in, or rather I and my assorted ex husbands owned them. For various reasons that I won't go into here PG and are not in a position to buy a house and as a consequence rent, something the thought of which, did not fill me with glee at the outset.
Why I had a problem with renting I'm not sure, I have no children to leave property too should I turn up my toes and historically, for me it has never been a good investment. All bar one of the homes I owned lost money through a combination of circumstance and economic climate and that one I had to agree to give my share of along the oh so pleasant route to divorce!
I love the flat we live in and I love where it is but it is not mine and it has always bugged me.......until this week.
This week the plumbing seemed to spontaneously combust, first the kitchen tap sprung a leak and then last night the waste pipe under the bath gave up! Suddenly tenancy as opposed to ownership is showing it's positive side. No fighting with basin wrenches, copper piping and PTFE tape for me....nope....just call the landlord and out he comes, job done, no hassle, no financial outlay........ Yup, I reckon this renting lark isn't so bad after all!
Why I had a problem with renting I'm not sure, I have no children to leave property too should I turn up my toes and historically, for me it has never been a good investment. All bar one of the homes I owned lost money through a combination of circumstance and economic climate and that one I had to agree to give my share of along the oh so pleasant route to divorce!
I love the flat we live in and I love where it is but it is not mine and it has always bugged me.......until this week.
This week the plumbing seemed to spontaneously combust, first the kitchen tap sprung a leak and then last night the waste pipe under the bath gave up! Suddenly tenancy as opposed to ownership is showing it's positive side. No fighting with basin wrenches, copper piping and PTFE tape for me....nope....just call the landlord and out he comes, job done, no hassle, no financial outlay........ Yup, I reckon this renting lark isn't so bad after all!
Casting aspersions....me?
Not of course that I would ever dream of casting aspersions on the 'interests' of you my loyal readers, nor consider you anything other than proper, polite and individuals of good taste but the thought came to mind, that of all the pictures I have ever used on my header only one was requested (and still is) to be returned! Only one drew comments and requests for a copy.....it was the only slightly risque image I ever used, the couple on the beach! Hmmmm.
And yes, I have made promise to return it again sometime, for someone, but I have to have a change for a day or two, so perhaps the above will do for now :o)
And yes, I have made promise to return it again sometime, for someone, but I have to have a change for a day or two, so perhaps the above will do for now :o)
Tuesday, 8 February 2005
I can't miss a day!
I'm having one of those days.....the one's where absolutely nothing is making it's way through the cotton wool that is currently masquerading as my brain and presenting itself as worthy of blogging. Absolutely damn all. Not a thing. Zip, zilch, nowt.
But here I am anyways, with one sole purpose......if I don't post something today it will be the first day of 2005 that I have missed and I just can't have that. My new years resolution (if you can call it that) was to post every day this year. I wasn't going to divulge that for fear of setting myself up for a fall but there it is, I have admitted it as poor excuse for this 'nothing' post that says sod all but at least carries the appropriate date!
Is that cheating I wonder?
But here I am anyways, with one sole purpose......if I don't post something today it will be the first day of 2005 that I have missed and I just can't have that. My new years resolution (if you can call it that) was to post every day this year. I wasn't going to divulge that for fear of setting myself up for a fall but there it is, I have admitted it as poor excuse for this 'nothing' post that says sod all but at least carries the appropriate date!
Is that cheating I wonder?
Monday, 7 February 2005
Ellen MacArthur has done it!
to Ellen MacArthur who has just broken the world record for sailing solo around the world with over a day to spare!
What a woman.
It's a tall world
This is not something new in my life, the world is most definitely not made to cater for those of us that are somewhat 'challenged' in the height department.
At 'optimistically' five foot I have long suffered clothes with sleeves half way to my knees, trousers with enough spare at the bottom of the leg to make a second pair and dresses that have the bust at my waist, the waist at my hips and reveal not just an attractive decolletage (should I have one) but the whole damn lot to a point somewhere midway between my shoulders and my navel!
I have had a lifetime of having to ask for assistance when trying to reach a product on a supermarket shelf, of being referred to as 'sweet' or 'cute' (neither of which accurately describes my nature!) because I am small, people have even been known to pat me on the head in a condescending manner and of course it has been the source of many jokes.
I am used to it, it has it's funny side and there are worse things that could have afflicted me but now something new.
I mentioned recently that the store in which I work is currently undergoing a re-fit, or rather a substantial re-build, well said work is progressing nicely, with one or two exceptions that I will go into on another occasion. This week saw the completion of the new desk that myself and those of usunlucky lucky enough to spend our days dealing with customer complaints inhabit for the eight hour stint.
And so we 'moved in' last Tuesday, tills, computers, and all the masses of sundry items required for us to do our job and serve the public in the manner to which they have become accustomed,where moved to our new 'abode' overnight. The morning bought chaos. I was alone running this area for the morning, I could find nothing, everything was covered in a thick layer of dust and scattered randomly around, my tannoy and 'customer requires help' buzzers where defunct, only one pc and one till worked and the power sockets where non existent.
All of this was somewhat challenging but do-able, I muddled through, gradually cleaned and organised between customers, if not to perfection at least to a point where I could operate reasonably......... but woe is me, the height issue/small person problem raised it's head once more and in a far more difficult manner than the norm.
The whole damn desk has been built for someone of at least 5' 10'', I can't see my customers and they can't see me over the pc and till screens! Oh joy. Add to that the tills have been set so high that I cannot manoeuvre myself any which way to be able to view the screen through the appropriate bit of my varifocal lenses, resulting in a week of sore eyes and headaches.
Yes, I know there is a duty of care, that my employer should alleviate this problem. I offered to use a small box or stool or some such 'high tech' piece of equipment to stand on but apparently health and safety doesn't allow that.
Please forgive my scepticism but I have a feeling this will turn into a bone of contention. My initial mention of the problem seemed to be treated as moaning or grumbling and I got the distinct feeling among the laughter, that it was taken less than seriously. Things are hectic right now, management are stressed and there are myriad deadlines to meet and things to get done, so for now I will wait and see.....but who will give me good odds on anyone coming back to me on this one without my having to make an issue of it?!
Lol, just give me a box someone!
At 'optimistically' five foot I have long suffered clothes with sleeves half way to my knees, trousers with enough spare at the bottom of the leg to make a second pair and dresses that have the bust at my waist, the waist at my hips and reveal not just an attractive decolletage (should I have one) but the whole damn lot to a point somewhere midway between my shoulders and my navel!
I have had a lifetime of having to ask for assistance when trying to reach a product on a supermarket shelf, of being referred to as 'sweet' or 'cute' (neither of which accurately describes my nature!) because I am small, people have even been known to pat me on the head in a condescending manner and of course it has been the source of many jokes.
I am used to it, it has it's funny side and there are worse things that could have afflicted me but now something new.
I mentioned recently that the store in which I work is currently undergoing a re-fit, or rather a substantial re-build, well said work is progressing nicely, with one or two exceptions that I will go into on another occasion. This week saw the completion of the new desk that myself and those of us
And so we 'moved in' last Tuesday, tills, computers, and all the masses of sundry items required for us to do our job and serve the public in the manner to which they have become accustomed,where moved to our new 'abode' overnight. The morning bought chaos. I was alone running this area for the morning, I could find nothing, everything was covered in a thick layer of dust and scattered randomly around, my tannoy and 'customer requires help' buzzers where defunct, only one pc and one till worked and the power sockets where non existent.
All of this was somewhat challenging but do-able, I muddled through, gradually cleaned and organised between customers, if not to perfection at least to a point where I could operate reasonably......... but woe is me, the height issue/small person problem raised it's head once more and in a far more difficult manner than the norm.
The whole damn desk has been built for someone of at least 5' 10'', I can't see my customers and they can't see me over the pc and till screens! Oh joy. Add to that the tills have been set so high that I cannot manoeuvre myself any which way to be able to view the screen through the appropriate bit of my varifocal lenses, resulting in a week of sore eyes and headaches.
Yes, I know there is a duty of care, that my employer should alleviate this problem. I offered to use a small box or stool or some such 'high tech' piece of equipment to stand on but apparently health and safety doesn't allow that.
Please forgive my scepticism but I have a feeling this will turn into a bone of contention. My initial mention of the problem seemed to be treated as moaning or grumbling and I got the distinct feeling among the laughter, that it was taken less than seriously. Things are hectic right now, management are stressed and there are myriad deadlines to meet and things to get done, so for now I will wait and see.....but who will give me good odds on anyone coming back to me on this one without my having to make an issue of it?!
Lol, just give me a box someone!
Eyes wide shut!
A whole house!
The above picture is not overly attractive and it appears to be of little interest but it illustrates well my level of attention to detail......or 'not' in this instance! We all do it, that slightly concerning thing where we drive into town or go about some other day to day routine and then can't recall the journey or quite how we got to that point.
The picture above shows the white gable end of a house, nothing too strange there but for the fact that house is at the bottom of the lane in which we live. I drive or walk into here facing it each time I come home and yet last time I took any notice it wasn't there! Ok, so it's been winter and dark most of that time and I have hopefully been concentrating on driving but it would have been kinda less worrying if I had noticed a whole house being built a little before it was almost complete!
I do have a vague recollection of unusual noise in the vicinity but I assumed it was emanating for the stables and farm there.......hells bells, it's not 200 yards away and I never noticed a whole, and I might add, big house, being constructed!!! Doh!
Any mention of age here is strictly prohibited!
Sunday, 6 February 2005
Virtual frustration
Perhaps it is just me but at times I find this blogging malarky frustrating. I am not referring here to the technical difficulties any of we intrepid bloggers face with regular monotony, I mean something slightly more profound.
Those sceptical souls out side of the blogosphere find it hard to relate to the principle that we find true friends, support, understanding and enjoyment from this endeavor, how often have you been told we are not 'real friends' or 'real people' or that you 'need to get out more' or 'get a life? I beg to differ there but that is not what this post is about and so before I digress further...... back to my point.
The frustration for me is in forging good and real friendships with people who in reality I know I am unlikely ever to meet. People I would love to sit and share a coffee with and to talk face to face with, people who's lives are difficult in some way and I cannot help as much as I would like. Friends who I genuinely care about and feel somehow I am not doing enough for, or who I would just like to be able to give a hug from time to time. People I know I would get on with like 'a house on fire', laugh unendingly with and have fun with.
The w.w.w. and the blogosphere has opened up a whole new world of interesting people for those of us that choose to use it and yet like anything, it is not perfect and brings with it it's own new aggravations and frustrations.
Words are powerful, they are an important form of communication but are not our only form of communication. We interact with our body language, our dialect, our facial expressions, our syntax, our voice tones and our personal manner of speech, to name but a few, and all of those things are missing here. It is easy to be misunderstood when one can't hear the others tone of voice or see their expression and it's hard often to express exactly what we mean and know that the other party has grasped our meaning. How often have you had an I.M conversation, an IRC conversation or sent an email....... only to find yourself struggling with only the typed word as your communication to undo some unintended hurt or to make yourself completely understood? As a veteran of IRC I can recall many a time I have sat in frustration at my inability to communicate exactly what I mean.
Yes we have webcams but they are very limited and I have rarely seen one that offers anything more than a badly pixelated, jumping image on a good day!
That said, the positives far outweigh the negatives and who among us would be without it now? Not me that's for sure". Frustrations, misunderstandings, aggravations and the rest of it, I'll take 'em all, for despite all of it my world has become a bigger more interesting place with the advent of the w.w.w. and I have met people I count among my true friends.
Those sceptical souls out side of the blogosphere find it hard to relate to the principle that we find true friends, support, understanding and enjoyment from this endeavor, how often have you been told we are not 'real friends' or 'real people' or that you 'need to get out more' or 'get a life? I beg to differ there but that is not what this post is about and so before I digress further...... back to my point.
The frustration for me is in forging good and real friendships with people who in reality I know I am unlikely ever to meet. People I would love to sit and share a coffee with and to talk face to face with, people who's lives are difficult in some way and I cannot help as much as I would like. Friends who I genuinely care about and feel somehow I am not doing enough for, or who I would just like to be able to give a hug from time to time. People I know I would get on with like 'a house on fire', laugh unendingly with and have fun with.
The w.w.w. and the blogosphere has opened up a whole new world of interesting people for those of us that choose to use it and yet like anything, it is not perfect and brings with it it's own new aggravations and frustrations.
Words are powerful, they are an important form of communication but are not our only form of communication. We interact with our body language, our dialect, our facial expressions, our syntax, our voice tones and our personal manner of speech, to name but a few, and all of those things are missing here. It is easy to be misunderstood when one can't hear the others tone of voice or see their expression and it's hard often to express exactly what we mean and know that the other party has grasped our meaning. How often have you had an I.M conversation, an IRC conversation or sent an email....... only to find yourself struggling with only the typed word as your communication to undo some unintended hurt or to make yourself completely understood? As a veteran of IRC I can recall many a time I have sat in frustration at my inability to communicate exactly what I mean.
Yes we have webcams but they are very limited and I have rarely seen one that offers anything more than a badly pixelated, jumping image on a good day!
That said, the positives far outweigh the negatives and who among us would be without it now? Not me that's for sure". Frustrations, misunderstandings, aggravations and the rest of it, I'll take 'em all, for despite all of it my world has become a bigger more interesting place with the advent of the w.w.w. and I have met people I count among my true friends.
Saturday, 5 February 2005
Whatever happened to......
....my life of laziness leisure? I'll tell you what happened, reality snuck up on me and bit me hard on the rear! I saw it coming, I wasn't pleased to see it's approach but like it or not things had to change a little.
So for now my life of leisure is curtailed somewhat. A matter of opportunity and a stern look on my virtual bank managers face collided and suddenly my days of working only two days a week are over! Bah!
This is nothing too serious I might add, I only have to work five days a week now and then, in the main it will be three or four but hell....I'm just not used to it! During my life of leisure I rarely got to bed before 1am and then I considered it early, the last few nights I have fallen into bed at 11ish and struggled to remain even remotely coherent for that long.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not really complaining here, I was lucky (if one can consider losing a close relative lucky), I unexpectedly inherited a considerable (to me) sum a while back, I could have been sensible, invested it, bought two new cars (oh how I wish I had done that right now), I could have bought a small property maybe or started a small business but no, I chose to live a comfortable life of relative leisure for a little over 2 years instead.
What fun we had in that time, it was bound to come to an end but the memories where worth every penny. I'd do the same all over again, without question.
So, just in case you where wondering........ now you have the answer to why my template has only changed once in two weeks! :o)
So for now my life of leisure is curtailed somewhat. A matter of opportunity and a stern look on my virtual bank managers face collided and suddenly my days of working only two days a week are over! Bah!
This is nothing too serious I might add, I only have to work five days a week now and then, in the main it will be three or four but hell....I'm just not used to it! During my life of leisure I rarely got to bed before 1am and then I considered it early, the last few nights I have fallen into bed at 11ish and struggled to remain even remotely coherent for that long.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not really complaining here, I was lucky (if one can consider losing a close relative lucky), I unexpectedly inherited a considerable (to me) sum a while back, I could have been sensible, invested it, bought two new cars (oh how I wish I had done that right now), I could have bought a small property maybe or started a small business but no, I chose to live a comfortable life of relative leisure for a little over 2 years instead.
What fun we had in that time, it was bound to come to an end but the memories where worth every penny. I'd do the same all over again, without question.
So, just in case you where wondering........ now you have the answer to why my template has only changed once in two weeks! :o)
Friday, 4 February 2005
Weird?
I was meandering around earlier today looking for pictures when I came across this one. It was on 'Getty images' a serious image site, not a joke site or something similar.
Why do I say this? Look carefully at the picture, you may need to enlarge it, what do you see? I'm sure there is a legitimate explanation, likely it has been manipulated in some way, but it on first sight it's weird!
(Click to enlarge)
©Getty Images
Why do I say this? Look carefully at the picture, you may need to enlarge it, what do you see? I'm sure there is a legitimate explanation, likely it has been manipulated in some way, but it on first sight it's weird!
(Click to enlarge)
©Getty Images
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