A pub just along from the office has recently been re-branded and had a text in competition to select the new name. At first we thought it was a fix, but after reading one of the on table adverts we are less certain.
Archive for November, 2006
Moot – nice bar, rubish name
November 30th, 2006Dear Alistair Christmas
November 30th, 2006
Christmas is coming and the shopping days until then are fast disappearing.
Now many of us lads would have a problem in finding something appropriate for out girl friends for Christmas, but no me, no. This is because I was lucky enough to find a top secret and well hidden wish list, hidden in full view in the middle of my pillow.
It is not all that expensive though, the holiday in Sharm El Sheikh has already been replaced with a two piece suite. Now all I need to do is figure out how I am going to pay for it all.
Snap Preview Anywhere
November 22nd, 2006I have just added Snap Preview Anywhere to my bolg after seeing it used on Techcrunch UK. Now when you hover your cursor over a link on blog.agm.me.uk/blog a window will pop up with a preview of the page it links to. Is it good, or just an hindrance? Please let me know.
I am starting to hate my Egg Card
November 21st, 2006I have had an Egg credit card for a long time now. It was recommended to me by a colleague and I got one to use for on-line transactions. Things went well, after the three attempts to set up a direct debit, and eventually I started using it for most things.
Over the last few months things have gone less well. The big problem is that the Egg automated services keeps thinking that my card has been stolen and keeps cancelling it. My card has been turned down three times in under two months. What is happening is my spending pattern has changed over the last three months and the card company is using my old shopping patterns to work out what I am not likely to be buying. This I don’t actually have a problem with as it is stopping fraud. My problem is that there is no way to reset the outdated information that is being treated as a guide to what I will be buying.
I have spent a while on the phone over this, with varying successes. Because of Egg’s operating conditions and procedures they could not reset everything. I did suggest issuing a whole new card on a new account, but they could not do this, and could not do so until 18 months after I had cancelled my current one. At one point there was a note placed on the system asking a supervisor to call me back. Sadly I did not get a call back, but he supervisor did update the system saying that there was nothing they could do so did not bother calling.
Finally I did get through to someone who did actually go and see what he could do. He spent most of the time speaking to colleagues and getting nowhere. Eventually he did come up with what we hope is a solution by cancelling the “first alert”. What this truly means is a misery, to me at least, and I get the impression most people at Egg, but we hope it will allow the suspect (or normal but unexpected) transaction and alert me rather than blocking the card leave me standing in the supermarket wondering how to pay for my shopping.
Finder crossed this will be the problem solved, but if not can you recommend a good credit card? Prefrebly one with no charges and cacheback.
I have a new tax disc
November 17th, 2006I have just renewed my tax disc on-line (Wahoo :-) ). Okay, the first time I tried to do it the system was down for maintenance, but this time I went through the process in under 5 minutes, and if all goes to plan my new disc will be arriving in 5 days time. The insurance and MOT was checked against databases meaning that I did not need to produce any documents. I wonder if in a few years we will have a physical tax disc at all or if it will all be digital and automated.
Update: The tax disk arrived through the post this morning. The only thing that I think is a little daft is that I can not put it in the car now, I must wait for the old on to expire first. Why not have the new tax disk valid from the renewal date, neither can be used on another car after all.
My MySpace space
November 17th, 2006I needed a diversion for a while to unwind and have finally done what I have intended to do for a while, that being to put some information on my MySpace page. To be honest most of this was cut and pasted from other web sites, but at least I now exist. :-)
Please feel free to add me as a friend if you are a, err, friend.
Can I just get a coffee
November 13th, 2006
We were on Hemel Hempstead station last week and I found that the coffee shop had a sense of humour. This picture if the bottom of the menu.
Keeping the toothbrush clean
November 13th, 2006
I do like things to be clean from bacteria, especially when they will be placed in my mouth. Baring this in mind, I was rather annoyed when I forgetting to bring a toothbrush holder when going away for a couple of days. Fortunately I came up with a rather neat solution using baking foil that I am rather proud of. :-)
The car park was a little full
November 7th, 2006
The car park was a little full this morning, but following the teachings of one of my colleagues, John, I managed to get parked. :-)
What is Fairy Liquid?
November 3rd, 2006
I was doing some cleaning in the office last night and went for the washing up liquid. There were two strange shaped bottles of Fairy (as kindly modelled by Jon from the office here) with “Fairy apple blossom” and “New improved perfume” printed on the label.
In the age of cross branding where the same name is on washing up liquid, kitchen wipes and floor cleaner I thought I would check that this new bottle was for the plates. Nowhere on the front of the bottle does is say what the liquid is for, and I found this amusing (it does not take much). Eventually Jon did find the words “Dishwashing Liquid” in the small print on the back.
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