Saturday, April 29, 2006

Lock Pete Doherty up now

The Sun has a picture & story where Pete Doherty injects heroine in an unconscious girl’s arm. She is lying on his kitchen floor. The picture is horrific.

Why is he not in custody? What kind of example does it set when the Police and Courts let him walk away every single time after he has been arrested?

I think it is because he now has this coolness factor and the tabloids love to write about him and Kate Moss. Why should he be allowed this special treatment? Surly not every junkie gets away with this as much as he does. Well, I bloody hope not.

Lock him up now!

Friday, April 28, 2006

HSBC

They messed … no fucked up big time today, well technically they did it on Wednesday.

All bacs payments received on Wednesday to be paid today had not been processed due to “a corrupted file”. Like how many millions in the UK should have received their salary today?? Answer: everybody who either gets paid on the 28 or 29 or 30 of April, and then there is all the Purchase ledger payments.

Fancy working in a Finance dept when people have not been paid??

My line manager and I arrived at exactly the same this morning. He told me that the txt from the bank did not include his salary. I checked my bank, nope no salary in my account either. In the meantime, he checks the company bank account and no payment has been deducted and there is no pending payment either.

Panic … until I verified that I had used the right value date on the payment and that the bank had received the payment.

Next step, kick some arse at the bank to find out what has gone wrong. I’d have to say that my line manager is great of kickin’ arse *hehe*.

First call to our branch managerbut he had not arrived yet at work. Next call he did went to a (Indian/ Pakistani/ Bangalore) call centre and he got the reply “Technical issues so sorry”. Well, we all know that call centres are there to fob off customers not to give service. And frankly it doesn’t help to come to an Indian (or similar) call centre where they read a scrip and don’t know about anything of the UK bank system.

My manager shouted down the phone “It is not a technical issue - it is people’s salaries” He might even used the work fuck in there too. In the meantime, the staff is just dropping by (yeah right) the Finance office with the sentence “I don’t know if you know but ...” We were like “Don’t say it, we know and trying to find out what has happened”

Next call and he got hold of our branch manager and my manager had to tell him the good news. With the questions, what are you going to do? At the end, we faxed over the bank details and amount and some poor staff had to manually input the into the swift system (my guess) and after a few hours the money appeared in my bank account *woooohooo*

My guess is that thousands or maybe millions of people did not get paid today and this is a bank holiday weekend so the payment will come in people’s bank account on Tuesday. HSBC issued a silly statement in the lines of “don’t worry the other banks have been told about the problems and the payment date will be 2 May. Do not use any other system to get the payments done today”

Yeah right, tell that to the people who can’t get out any money from the cash point or default on a mortgage payment.

I had a couple of conversations like “my mortgage goes out today”, “I am £1000 overdrawn without the payment” etc and of course the smart arse of our IT manager comes up to me and asks “What is going on in finance dept? What did you guys do wrong?” Jokes are mostly ok but trust me there are sometimes when it is not appropriate and this was one of them. I snapped back to him and said Not our fault (silent: you idiot).

Anyway it had a happy ending for our part and my line manager saved the day for a lot of people.

BBC reboot

BBC is finally doing something about their lame main site www.bbc.co.uk

Their news site has always been the main site for me. I have never understood why such a big name and presence on the internet would not do more with their main site. Now they do and they are doing in a very cool way.

They are opening the doors to their readers, users and creative people to come up with ideas. And what happened? They get mostly slagged off for this initiative. Just don’t get it. I don't see any other main corporation daring to do this.

Anyway, if you are in to designing and / or creative stuff – click here

First time

I meet up my neighbour yesterday evening, just for a chat. I started to chat about work and she interrupts me and says “Yeah, I know. I read your blog” and stopped me in my tracks. What could I say?

She is one the few that knows who I am and that I have a blog.

Anyway, we could get on to her and what she needed to talk about. She lives a much more fun & happening life and I think that she should have a blog too. Or would that make me the very nosey neighbour? LOL C’mon K get a blog going!!

She did think that one of my post when I was writing about people watch TV in the morning (what is wrong with you????) was a reference to her. I can vaguely hear it but that doesn’t bother me.

At the end of the evening, we played PS2 game Buzz and I won twice *hehe* Re match perhaps?

Sleaze week

It has been a proper sleaze week with Labour and all sorts of scandals like releasing 1000-odd foreign prisoners without deporting them. They are roaming around in the country cos the authorities cannot find them. IDIOTS!!

The deputy PM has been shagging a women then wasn’t his wife – and I am being cynical here because I think these stories had a managed timing when realised. Another wife gets screwed (pun intended) and I would enjoy if the role had been reversed, the wife hooks up with somebody and leaves the politician to be the injured party.

Would you do this guy? Probably not … power must be a real strong aphrodisiac






Labour is going down, down and the next election is ages away so most people will have forgotten all this sleaze.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Annoyed

I like surfing the random blogs. That is how I found most blogs that I am currently reading.

CoffeeandCigs

seriously wtf.

elderrant

Drinking From Home

Sam - Thoughts, photos and pie

more about nothing

She-Blogger

Saving Sanity

Making Headlines

WanderingScribe

There is one main reoccurring theme – just realised.


But there are two very annoying things – it is those blogs with “Let make poverty history” banner.

1. I can’t use the next blog button.

2. The banner is just so damn wrong!!! People, let’s make CORRUPTION history then the poverty will disappear too. The correlation is 1 between them. I have never given any money for the Africa causes and I can’t see me doing it in the future either. Clothes, sure no probs but anything else? Nope

Some people seem to have the idea if there was oil resources then this level of corruption would not have happened. I thought so too but then when I thought about it some more, I don’t think it holds anymore.

Africa has many resource, minerals, diamonds, gold etc. The different governments could have made sure that the multi-national companies would not be able to corrupt as much as they have done. Y’ know public outcry, get the UN and similar involved, apply diplomatic pressure – still think the public outcry would have been the best alternative just in case any Western government was pulling any strings for these companies to be able to get away with what they have done.

Time instead of money?

I took the chance today to voice my disappointment over my new salary – just in between whatever correction of the payroll and another directors decision of handing out a bonus (bigger then my salary increase btw) to somebody that didn’t get a pay raise – and that was not meet with a great deal of understanding.


Firstly, I think he was surprised that I raised it at all, secondly he defended it and thirdly I was told it was a reasonable raise. I didn’t agree but what could I do? At least I said something so they know about it.

I am very tempted to take it in time what I could not get in money instead. But I have to fight with my conscience first.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Information

Information can be a bitch sometimes. The salaries for the next year were uploaded on to the payroll today. And I am not happy. I got a £1k increase and this is the salary that I have been on since I started about 17 months ago. That is ‘increase’ is less then inflation so my employer is basically stating that I am worth less then the day I was signed.

When I had a look at what the rest of our dept had received, then I saw that I got the lowest increase in £ terms. The two junior co-workers got more then me. Fav girl got about 50% more then me, £1.5k – this is a person that comes in late, goes early, unpleasant to work with but has some hold of our line manager. I think the line manager had said that her salary needs to be in line with the other junior staff.

I have a meeting with our director tomorrow morning to sign off the payroll and I am going to bring up that I am disappointed with my new salary.

Then for the sales staff, some of them got major increases like £20k and £15k. The girl that our MD is shagging or at least had an affair with got £20k increase. She has brought in money and clients but is a huge jump.

Monday, April 24, 2006

I wish

I wish I was a model human being suitable for our society. I’d like to naturally wake up at 7am, eat when one is suppose to do and NOT being tired when I come home from work, be able to eat dinner at suitable time for my body and then be able to go to sleep immediately.

Instead, I am like this:

Do not f*cking talk to me in the morning after the alarm clock has rudely interrupted my sleep.

I sleep as long as possible so any breakfast before I leave is out the question. Not to mention watching morning tv – are you people nuts watch that in the morning? If you not have notice, the tv make noise and people are talking. *tsk*

Around 10am I have my second Diet coke and some breakfast bars.

I never ever go on lunch before 13.00 – no matter what my stomach or blood suger is telling me.

When I come home, I am energetic for about 30-60 min then I am chilling and getting tired. I am kind of hungry but can’t be arsed to do anything about so I nibble and/or eat sweets.

Around 19.00 BF comes home and ask what I want for dinner which I never ever know. Sometimes he calls before leaving work and ask the same question but the answer is almost always the same – Don’t know or Not hungry. But bless him for his patience when it comes to this.

Then around 22.00 – the magic hour – when I get energetic (and hungry) again. I find it t is so difficult falling asleep when I go to bed around 23.30-00.30. Once I am sleeping then I stay asleep but it is a bitch falling asleep. I am a night person, always have and always will be.

Stress test

Look at the pictures to see if you see movement?




The pictures are used to test the level of stress a person can handle.

The slower the pictures move, the better your ability of handling stress.

Alleged criminals that were tested see them spinning around madly; However, senior citizens and kids see them standing still.

None of these images are animated - they are perfectly still.


F
or me, they are slowly moving but not all at one go.

New Beach in Japan



I want to go ... don't you???

Things that make you go MMMM

The shower scene in Get richer or die trying – what can I say? There is a lot for a girl to look at. In general in this film, it is more for the girls then for the boys (in this kind of area) which is surprising.

Things make me go *argh*

Downstairs neighbours shagging again – at least I have not gone to bed yet, still in the living room and I can hear the banging on the wall.

Monday again and I have to go to work


Things that I am not too sure about

This weekend we switched bit torrent client from BitComet to uTorrent and I am not sure I like uTorrent’s layout and controls of managing the torrents. But the advantage is that uTorrent is encrypting the files which make it more difficult for our ISP to see what is being done.

Sweet


Michael Schumacher won at Imola today.

SWEET ! ! !


I want more and more and more

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Being managed

I think my line manager was printing out the impersonal “you have done a good job and this is the “raise”” – letter this afternoon. The treat, as I have been told, is that the MD actually signs each letter. Me … personally I don’t give a shit about that, only thing that counts is my salary for the coming year. Normally, it is his gossip bitch that does that job but for some reason she didn’t do it this year.

One speculation is that she should not know what people is earning but that is not plausible. Firstly, what my line manager knows she knows and vice versa. Secondly, she has access to the Payroll program so she can find out anyway.

My line manager has been grumpy and damn outright rude to me and my co-worker (fav-girl has of course escaped this) and been trying to put us down. It has not gone that well cos both of us have answered back which obviously he didn’t like so more grumpiness was produced.

Possibly we are being managed for the non-existent pay raise or he is simply pissed off that he is not getting enough. The answer is in the post … and me checking the info when I am doing payroll on Monday.

There was this weird moment today when he came into our office and ask if we had noticed that our dept had been ignored and side stepped. Well, yeah cos nobody wants to deal with him. He went on and on (my co-worker ignored him totally since had been very rude to her earlier in the day) but at the end I turned around to him and said:

We are being ignored because we have isolated ourselves. Sure, we deal with a lot of confidential information but it is not helping us being away from everybody. Of course that don’t know what we are doing. The only important thing that we are doing is paying these people’s salary.

But the penny didn’t drop and I don’t expect it ever will.

Anyway, I am not completely bothered because of this. There is a possible way out and let see what happens in the future.

Unofficial rules …. well rules

It works but it looks like a mess from my way of dealing with traffic. It just goes to show that there are loads of unofficial rules everywhere.

Check out the Gas truck or the guy getting properly squeezed


Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Buzz ... or the lack of it today

BF bought this game yesterday. We had played the Music quiz game before with friends and that was v fun.

It is a cool game but I have one problem with it. I didn't win. Lost three times in a row. I had real problems with the section of Hitman, where I got the damn questions right but ended up shooting myself.

Now this causes problem in a relationship and I did sulk.



Otherwise I am tired today. Getting back to work was difficult, my body was in a semi-chock of being up at an early hour (07.50) and that stayed with me all day. It is busy at work and I managed to put in a decent day work. But I got even more stuff to do tomorrow.

I walked home from work today and it was a very nice evening. Got home, turned on the computer and did some things that I HAD to do. I have finally registered my claim with the Court re CW. And now I have some more important, but not in the right mood for it, things to do. So I thought I do this blog post first. I am rambling on here.

I saw the film Millions yesterday and I thought it was brilliant. The acting was stunning and I can recommend this film.

Sunday, April 16, 2006

wtf??

*hmpf*


How evil are you?

From the Good Twinkie

Friday, April 14, 2006

A nice birthday

I have had a nice & fun birthday. The best bits were to speak to friends & family.

Many thanks for the wishes on this blog :)

The weather was sunny which made it extra nice to walk around in London. There were loads of people in Central London, but I didn’t get too stressed out. I can just take Oxford St in small doses cos quite frankly tourists walk in a different pace and rightly so.

The first stop was at the Apple Store on Regent St. I didn’t like the layout of the San Francisco store and this store was basically the same. There is a manic feel in the store. I wanted to get a new remote control to my iPod (1st generation) and a firewire cable to be able to recharge it at work. Neither is sold in the store and the guy told me that I needed to upgrade my iPod. BF then interrupts him and says that Apple sells both these items on the website and the guy looks at him with a blank expression. Anyway, the online order is now done.

After that we stopped by at Starbucks and then sat in Hanover Sq to drink it. It was nice & sunny. It was too many pigeons around – basically if there is one pigeon then there is one too many. I am (not so) secretly hoping if the bird flu becomes an epidemic that all pigeons will be exterminated. In the City, they have hawks that kill the pigeons and I think that Westminster Council should do the same.

After Oxford St, we went to Shepard Bush and saw Scary Movie 4. It was funny and not bad considering it is the forth film. The previous ones were better. Then we went back to Central London – getting to the restaurant, Bodens, just in time. I had a nice sirloin steak – as raw as possible.

Before we went back on the Tube, we stopped by the bookshop Borders and had a long wonder around and came out with a few books.

5 Manias

This is from Bentes. Long time, no see my friend. Great ‘seeing’ you again, it put a smile on face when I saw that you had made a comment.

The challenge is to describe yourself with 5 characteristics of you or 5 habits. Then ask another blogger to do the same.

1. Strange mix of being cynical of today but also have a strong feeling that tomorrow will bring something better.

2. Starting to realise that I might just have a tendency to compulsiveness – like small & large things done my way and get annoyed/disturb when they are not.

3. I should be more assertive … I have lost some of it a long the way

4. Enjoy the silence

5. I have a Diet Coke every morning after my shower


I guess I should add that I have a childish delight to see my birthday date on the blog post ;)

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Plans for Easter

There is one good thing with the religion – it is the bases for the Bank holidays.

I am not complaining about having tomorrow (Friday) and Monday off. Especially when it is a bank holiday is on my birthday – extra sweet :)


Friday:

Have a sleep in (niiiice)

Go to cinema - Scary Movie 4

Go and do some birthday shopping

Then Dinner at American Steakhouse.


Saturday:

At my BF’s parents place


Sunday:

Meet up with one of my oldest friend that is in London for the Easter weekend

Monday:

No plans yet

Monday, April 10, 2006

Religion divides ... again

This is another example where Religion / Religious people want to impose their belief onto others.

Mohamad (my apologies, I spelt your name wrong!)– this one is for you, just to show you that I am not just aiming against Islam.

One the island Harris –Google map-, 90% of the population do not what to have a Ferry service on Sunday because “the Sabbath must be strictly observed as a day of rest.”

On a side note – I thought the Sabbath was a term that only the Jews used and that was for Friday only but clearly it is used in Christianity. And oh – tonight on telly there was a program called “Jews for Jesus” – it is all very weird.

I respect their values that they do not want use the ferry on a Sunday. What I can never agree to is their “right” of imposing their way of life for the 10% of the island population that want to have a Ferry service on a Sunday.

The Reverend is quoted in this article to say that they are "trampled over the democratic will of the people".

I find this statement incredible despicable. Its spin and is also saying that their religious belief should apply for all. What right do they have to constrain for the other inhabitant of the island? Absolutely NONE.

Fine … rest on your Sunday, it is your choice but do not tell or restrict what other people what they can or can’t do. Why is this so difficult for religious people to respect other people not from their own religion?

The phrase “it is their God given right” swivels around in my mind when I am writing this and I think is the problem with all religion.

This time around it is Roman Catholic vs Presbyterian (whatever the difference is more then the Pope – non-Pope issue – I am not quite clear). Religion is so messy and manages to divide people more often then not.

Local Elections on 4 May 06

I am going to use the voting strategy, vote against something rather then for.

I will be voting against Respect & Gorgeous George and put my vote where it is the most effective. Despite this is not in line with my values or political stance.

I will vote and I cannot stand people that don’t vote. There is no excuse – and you bloody well know it. Nothing to vote for … at least spoil your vote.

Lizze bitches about...: My MP in red (fr BB House)

Friday, April 07, 2006

Scary

Not in the funny "Maze Kid"-way
It took a bit before I picked it up but this woman is returning to her own home. To me it looked like – from the family faces – that a complete stranger had walked through their door.

This is the Christian equivalent of a Muslim fundamentalist. I dislike both equally much.


Good strips

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Our dear guest

We have the immense honour to have this distinguish guest. I call her Lucy and she is the sweetest thing. I don’t think it is suitable to have a cat in the area I live in but as always people have different values.

Lucy doesn’t seem to be allowed to be home very often so she comes to us and our neighbour. With Lucy’s charm – I am guessing she has a few honey pots around this area.



If only I had the extra dosh ... and car

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Oh shit

Bird flu has reached UK - read more about it.

Carphone Warehouse; part ... whatever

Todays emails after being totally ignored yesterday;

Me:

?

CW:
Apologies for the long delay, Im waiting on the handsets to be available in our warehouse to order, They should be updated with stock every few days, but for some reason are taking longer with this model.

I'll keep a constant check on the availability and keep you posted.

Me:
It is time for Carphone Warehouse give me a credit so I can go and get my handset elsewhere. Retail price is £180, I believe. It is not acceptable that I have to wait any longer, I handed in the phone 17 Feb and it is now 5 April (48 days!).

Otherwise, I have no other alternative to seek recompense in Small Claim Court.
CW:
*silence*

They are fucking wankers ...

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Good use of Google maps

Saturday, April 01, 2006

April’s fool, eh?

*sigh* yup, I am an April’s fool and I bought it fully. I didn’t even stop to think or was slightly suspicion. Nope, I read it twice and then WTF??

One of the torrent sites that I use had put on a spoof BBC news story stating that the MPAA and BBC had closed this site. Since I think that MPAA is a very vile organisation and I was kind of surprised that the BBC had jumped on the same bandwagon, I bought the story.

I have a few excuses if you are interested, if not, time move on to the next blog. I had just slept for a few hours, gone up 3.20 am to watch the qualifying for the Australian F1 – I was tired ok? I was focus to find the torrent for Hustle and I didn’t appreciate to find a news story that the site was closed. Did I mention it was 3.20 on Saturday morning??