(no subject)

What is it with credit card delivery services?

Some banks just send you a new card in the post with an activation code in a separate letter a few days later. This works fine. Well done, Lloyds TSB Bank (Lloyds Trustee Savings Bank Bank - didn't think that name through on merging, did they?).

Others, no names no pack drill, oh all right, I'm talking Halifax Bank here, use a company called SMS Deliveries. Now this bunch of cowboys serially delivers the new card to an inappropriate address and then leaves a snotty message saying you weren't there to collect it. For example, they tried to deliver it at home when I was at work. Easy mistake. I rearranged the delivery to the office, but they didn't try on the agreed day, preferring instead to wait until I'd gone on sick leave. Since then, they have been completely uncontactable.

Doubtless I shall get a snotty letter at some point, and they will try and deliver again at another inconvenient point - probably Easter.

Happily I'm in no hurry. Not having the card means I can't spend money I don't have on things I don't need. Although admittedly that is one of my favourite hobbies.

Tcha.

(no subject)

What is it with credit card delivery services?

Some banks just send you a new card in the post with an activation code in a separate letter a few days later. This works fine. Well done, Lloyds TSB Bank (Lloyds Trustee Savings Bank Bank - didn't think that name through on merging, did they?).

Others, no names no pack drill, oh all right, I'm talking Halifax Bank here, use a company called SMS Deliveries. Now this bunch of cowboys serially delivers the new card to an inappropriate address and then leaves a snotty message saying you weren't there to collect it. For example, they tried to deliver it at home when I was at work. Easy mistake. I rearranged the delivery to the office, but they didn't try on the agreed day, preferring instead to wait until I'd gone on sick leave. Since then, they have been completely uncontactable.

Doubtless I shall get a snotty letter at some point, and they will try and deliver again at another inconvenient point - probably Easter.

Happily I'm in no hurry. Not having the card means I can't spend money I don't have on things I don't need. Although admittedly that is one of my favourite hobbies.

Tcha.

Curiously apt...

A workmate of mine just emailed me this piece of doggerel.

How true it is...

Ten Civil Servants standing in a line
One of them was downsized
then there were nine.

Nine Civil Servants who must negotiate,
One joined the union,
then there were eight:

Eight Civil Servants thought they were in heaven,
'til one of them was redeployed
then there were seven.

Seven Civil Servants, their jobs as safe as bricks
But one was reclassified
then there were six,

Six Civil Servants trying to survive,
One of them was privatised,
then there were five.

Five Civil Servants ready to give more,
But one Golden Handshake
reduced them to four.

Four Civil Servants full of loyalty,
Their jobs were all advertised
then there were three.

Three Civil Servants under review,
One left on secondment
then there were two

Two Civil Servants coping on the run,
One went on stress leave
then there was one,

The last Civil Servant agreed to relocate,
Replaced by 10 consultants at twice the hourly rate!!

Particularly since most cuts in the civil service are accompanied by increases in Non-Departmental Public Bodies, or NDPBs (we don't use the term, Quango any more - that's for Channel 4 news only, and has been for at least 15 years).

Curiously apt...

A workmate of mine just emailed me this piece of doggerel.

How true it is...

Ten Civil Servants standing in a line
One of them was downsized
then there were nine.

Nine Civil Servants who must negotiate,
One joined the union,
then there were eight:

Eight Civil Servants thought they were in heaven,
'til one of them was redeployed
then there were seven.

Seven Civil Servants, their jobs as safe as bricks
But one was reclassified
then there were six,

Six Civil Servants trying to survive,
One of them was privatised,
then there were five.

Five Civil Servants ready to give more,
But one Golden Handshake
reduced them to four.

Four Civil Servants full of loyalty,
Their jobs were all advertised
then there were three.

Three Civil Servants under review,
One left on secondment
then there were two

Two Civil Servants coping on the run,
One went on stress leave
then there was one,

The last Civil Servant agreed to relocate,
Replaced by 10 consultants at twice the hourly rate!!

Particularly since most cuts in the civil service are accompanied by increases in Non-Departmental Public Bodies, or NDPBs (we don't use the term, Quango any more - that's for Channel 4 news only, and has been for at least 15 years).

Spring, huh?

A lot of people have been eulogizing the coming of Spring.

Well the only sign of it in London has been the fact that the wind has swung back around to the north, making it damn chilly again. Mind you, in the brief time I was out today I did notice the greenery beginning to show (albeit tentatively) on the branches of some of the local trees. It was sunny, too.

I will know when Spring is here properly when the last of the blossom drops off the murderous cherry tree at the end of our road (it is a trend setter - it always kicks out the flowers well ahead of anything else, and promptly sheds them just as the fashion is being picked up by the rest of its arboreal brethren) which is in any case a mutant, since no other cherry tree in existence does to my sinuses what that one does.

The other sure fire way of knowing Spring is here is that my telly reception goes to pot as the conker tree outside the house fills up with leafy foliage. Most of the time this doesn't matter as I get my telly off the cable, but now and then I want to tape something and watch another channel. From mid Spring to Mid Autumn this is problematic and it is quite possible to get seasick from the picture I get over my puny indoor aerial.

Spring has sprung, eh? Lucky there’s bugger all on telly over the summer.

Spring, huh?

A lot of people have been eulogizing the coming of Spring.

Well the only sign of it in London has been the fact that the wind has swung back around to the north, making it damn chilly again. Mind you, in the brief time I was out today I did notice the greenery beginning to show (albeit tentatively) on the branches of some of the local trees. It was sunny, too.

I will know when Spring is here properly when the last of the blossom drops off the murderous cherry tree at the end of our road (it is a trend setter - it always kicks out the flowers well ahead of anything else, and promptly sheds them just as the fashion is being picked up by the rest of its arboreal brethren) which is in any case a mutant, since no other cherry tree in existence does to my sinuses what that one does.

The other sure fire way of knowing Spring is here is that my telly reception goes to pot as the conker tree outside the house fills up with leafy foliage. Most of the time this doesn't matter as I get my telly off the cable, but now and then I want to tape something and watch another channel. From mid Spring to Mid Autumn this is problematic and it is quite possible to get seasick from the picture I get over my puny indoor aerial.

Spring has sprung, eh? Lucky there’s bugger all on telly over the summer.