Well, the postal unions have announced a series of strikes on the run up to Christmas. What a brilliant move, calculated to undermine confidence in the postal service at the time of year when most post is sent. Presumably it’s also when the postal service makes a reasonable amount of money under normal circumstances. So if there’s no service, there’ll be less money and more chance of Pat losing his job. Sometimes the mind boggling stupidity of unions staggers me. Don’t these morons realise that there has to be a business for there to be jobs?
Over the past few weeks, London has had a shit postal service. Right now it’s just not worth taking the risk of putting something in the post. It’s unlikely to arrive. So people are doing other things – like abandoning the Royal Mail and using courier companies, and email wherever possible.
I’m going through my Christmas list, and preparing to do as much as possible by email, or failing that, giving my friends a call to wish them Happy Christmas.
I’d put money on most of London doing the same.
Well done guys
I used to like postmen. Now I feel differently. Firstly they’re on strike half the time in London so sending a letter is lie entering a lottery. When will it arrive? Will it arrive at all? Enter the Royal Mail lottery. Your prize is – your letter gets delvered within the month.
Secondly, we had a mail delivery today. It was an ocassion of some celebration (see above). And in with the letters was a card telling me that one item was too big for my letterbox, so could I please go to the sorting office to collect it. The bugger didn’t TRY to deliver it. There was no doorbell sound, or knocking. He just couldn’t be arsed to do his job so he’s going to make me go to the sorting office to collect it. What an idle git. I feel that Royal Mail should give me a discount on the stamp since they didn’t fulfil their side of the bargain.
I love the Ig Nobel prizes. They represent the very best of human achievement and always make me smile.
This year the Irish police won the prize for literature, for writing and presenting more than 50 traffic tickets to the most frequent driving offender in the country – Prawo Jazdy – whose name in Polish means “Driving Licence”.
Here’s the link to the BBC news site with more details
Enjoy
Progress isn’t made by early risers. It’s made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.
Robert Heinlein, Time Enough For Love
If you haven’t read this book, get out there and do so. It’s typical Heinlein – a good story with plenty to think about along the way.
On Friday I reckon I scored bonus points.
I was nearly run over by no less than FOUR 2 wheeled terrorists who ignored the traffic signals that apply to EVERYBODY who uses the road. If car drivers did what these maniacs did, they’d be prosecuted, and rightly so. But because these arrogant bastards ride bicycles, they get away with it.
I am getting increasingly annoyed with these hooligans. I so wish I carried a sledge hammer to put through their front wheels when they endanger my life.
To all cyclists who do this sort of thing – I really hope you wrap yourself around a lamp-post and die slowly and painfully.
Who thinks up this stuff?
There I am, before 6 in the morning, barely conscious and the local radio announces that the world is about to end. Do I run around screaming in panic? No. Not ‘cos I’m not worried that the world is about to end, rather it’s early in the morning, my brain is coming to life one cell at a time, and the bit that would have me running around is still trying to come to terms with being awake, and besides all effort had been diverted to the hearing bit – “What was that? The world’s going to end? Could someone just check that?”
And why was this snippet broadcast? Because today is the 9th day of the 9th month of the 9th year. And the forecast for the end of the world was based on that.
So we should all have died at 09:09:09 hrs on 09-09-09.
Except….that time had already passed in Paris, and wouldn’t happen for 5 more hours in New York.
So why was the radio giving this sort of rubbish air time? I really don’t need to be alarmed first thing in the morning, even if the alarm only lasts a nanosecond. In that nanosecond, untold damage has been done to my sensibilities, and it takes a long time for everything to recover.
I guess we’ll have the same panic next October. 10:10:10 on 10-10-10
I need to vent my spleen, and today’s target is Belkin. Their definition of customer service is clearly “deny everything, treat all customers as though they are completely stupid, and finally take the piss out of them”.
I have a wireless router, that refuses to talk to a PC with XP service pack 3 on it. After hours (and I mean hours) on the phone where they tried to convince me that it was the PC, conveniently not hearing me say that the PC works fine with another manufacturer’s steam driven wireless router, they agreed to replace it.
The catch was they want me to send them the old one first, and then, within 5 days they’ll send me a replacement (which may or may not work of course). So I will be without internet access for well over 5 days by the time the not terribly good postal service does its bit.
This is taking the piss.
Every other manufacturer I know will send out the new box, and ask me to put the old box in the packing and return it. Not Belkin. They gave me a label, but I will have to find packing material to return the old box.
I do hope someone from Belkin reads this – because I will certainly never knowingly or willingly buy anything from you ever again. And if anyone asks me to recommend a manufacturer of anything electrical, the first thing I will say is ‘whatever you do, don’t buy Belkin’
The trouble with companies like Belkin is they are too big, and they just don’t care. They figure they can piss off customers without having an effect on sales, and the sad thing is they’re probably right.
Welcome to the absolutely bloody hopeless club, Belkin
There was a letter the other day asking residents what we thought of a plan to turn X street from a one-way to a one-way for cars, but two-way for cyclists.
Why is the Council wasting its time and money on this consultation? Cyclists do what they like, and seem incapable of seeing road signs, zebra crossings, traffic lights etc. They are the supreme road users, and everyone else – everyone else- is expected to get out of their way. Many’s the time I’ve been crossing X street only to be yelled at by a cyclist coming the wrong way down the street. Once I even saw two of them in formation. One had a microphone in his hand, conducting an interview with the other as they rode the wrong way down the street.
I dream of accidentally stepping out in front of one of these wheeled terrorists and causing them to fall off their bike as they take avoiding action. In my dream I leave them writhing on the road and carry on with my walk, as though nothing has happened.
In reality, of course, they would just ride into me and I’d be the one writhing, but I can dream.
I just watched a video clip on the BBC website where Terry Pratchett gives his (quote) opinion’s (unquote) about assisted suicide.
What the hell is that apostrophe doing in there? He gives his opinion’s what about assisted suicide? There’s no possessive there at all. What kind of moron are they employing in the BBC these days?
Well, I’m glad to say that someone at the BBC isn’t a moron, because when I went there just a minute ago to get a link, the offending paragraph has been re-written. I’m pleased that someone is looking at the site content and correcting the bad grammar.
I don’t know how long it’s been around, but I only spotted it today.
The verb is “to farewell”, and I assume it means to “bid farewell to”.
You can see the use of this wonderful new word here
As far as I can see the only reason for its use is to save ink in a newspaper, but since this is an online newspaper, there isn’t any ink to save, and therefore there’s no excuse.
What is it with the habit which verberises every noun under the sun?
