Category: Uncategorised

SplashDVD (see below) have gone into receivership. Which figures. As off midday today, the sods who took money off my credit card for a DVD they didn’t even have in stock have ceased trading.

Well, hopefully I’ll get a refund courtesy of the credit card company. Leave it to them to chase the cash up. And I hope the owners of Toppers (C.I.) Limited end up in cardboard boxes under bridges.

Yes, folks. It’s been one of them days… At least it’s meant some blog posts!

I just realised. I have to go through that bloody answering service (see immediately below) to let the credit card company know about the problem. *sob*

I needed to order a new credit card today. Mine’s getting worn out from over-use. Look, I buy chewing-gum with the damn thing. Everything goes on plastic.

Quickly look up the phone number. Dial the number… couple of rings…

“Hello and welcome to [card company]. Please enter your 16 digit card number.”

*sigh*. OK.

*beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep*

Pause. Erm… Ah.

“Please wait a moment.”

I just have.

“Please enter your date of birth. For instance, if you were born on *blah* *blah*”

*beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep*

“Now please enter the four-digit card expiry date”

*GRR*

*beep* *beep* *beep* *beep*

“Your current balance is…. Your credit limit is… leaving you….”

I DON’T CARE!!!

“If you want another service, please use one of the following options.”

Oh grud, I just *know* “talk to a human” will be last.

“If you want to….” etc etc etc.

And of course, after four other options, I get to talk to a human being. By pressing “*0”, not even just “0”. “*0” so you can’t guess it and jump ahead.

Phone rings. Once. And a nice young lady picks up. And then takes my name, address with postcode, card number (again), expiry date (again), date of birth (again!)… Didn’t I just get past all this so I could speak to her? What’s the point?

Anyway. Rough time spent keying numbers in and getting through menu… about 4 minutes.

Rough time spent giving same information to a human and sorting the card out… 2 minutes. At what point is this automated service actually helping me?

At last. Knocked back for a ticket the last two years, but finally they’ve decided I warrant one. First time at the Reebok. I await another 1-1 draw with Bolton levelling in the 88th minute.

First of all to Portsmouth’s home support (again – that’s twice this week) for their vocal efforts despite being five goals down to Arsenal. The match ended 1-5 to the visitors in this FA Cup quarter final, but the Pompey crowd never let the volume drop. They even applauded the Arsenal playes off when they were being substituted.

Secondly, Thierry Henry for having the good grace to give them a word in his post-match interview. In fact, I think the spent longer talking about them than he did about the actual game. Oh, and also for saying that he’s never seen support like it before… apart from a couple of times at Newcastle!

I was due on site at Birmingham NEC at around 10:00 this morning. To start with, i got held up for about 30 mins on the M1 near Derby because someone braked at about 6:00am and the traffic was still clearing as a result.

I got onto the A42 thinking “at last – 20 minutes…”. Four miles later and I was in a logjam. I got to site at 12:20pm. This was about the time I expected to be leaving and heading home.

Instead I left at 16:20. By 18:00, I’d travelled a shade under 2 miles. All this because of a dog show. Home was finally arrived at sometime after 20:00. A good five hours later than I’d hoped, so no coursework done tonight, dammit.

A quick message for the BMW that tried to sideswipe me on the M1 as well: It’s “mirror, signal, maneuvre” not “maneuvre, signal, mirror, panic, swerve back again, brake harshly”. You prick.