Wiping sleep from my eye's

Sometimes I just love leaving the curtains open when I fall asleep at night, just so that I can wake up with the sunrise the next morning. Somehow, waking gently with the first rays of sun playing on your face beats having an air-raid siren go off 2 inches from your ear. I'm convinced that one day I will die of a heart attack this way.

But anyways. Topics we're staying away from at the moment: The US Grand Prix (see my comments to Nat's post)

Other news is that after months of wanting to I have finally gone and ordered The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe. I'm a bit weird in that I can't make myself order a new book until I've finished the one I'm currently reading. The book should be arriving today, which is great, apart from the fact that I'm away from home until tomorrow.

Yesterday someone actually offered to recommend me as a manager to a wicked restaurant in Mayfair, London. The idea was quite enticing actually, except that in the end they didn't have a vacancy for a manager. Oh well.

I have some photo's that need to go up too, but as I'm away from home, and the digicam isn't, they'll just have to wait until tomorrow.

I seriously have to get back into this blogging thing! I keep seeing things that I want to write about but enevitably don't have my laptop with me when I see them. And my memory for such transient observations stinks.

Laters.

Broken blog...

...be fixed. Please.

*post blog: I am now editing this post and attempting to post it again. Holding thumbs.

It's my birthday and I'll cry...

It's my birthday on Friday. I'll be 24.

Today Sarah has arranged some kind of suprise thing for me. I haven't got a clue what to expect. All I know is that I'm waiting in my room right now for her to come and get me, blind fold me, and take me downstairs.

I'm fucking scared. Sweating like mad really.

BU$H$HIT!

You know, I usually I try to keep this blog as unpolitcal as possible (I hate poiltical blogs, there's enough of that shit in the news), but every now and again someone says something that just pisses me off so much that I have to say something or else burst.

Yesterday was a good example. I watched the American President (yes, THAT complete twat that we all love to hate) address the UN. It was a mistake to watch from the start, I knew that. I knew I wouldn't achieve anything besides winding myself up into a mouth foaming frenzy. But I watched anyway.

The pillock didn't let me down either. Once again he went on about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and the threat that they pose. Ok, right. These would be the same WOMD that no one has managed to find yet, despite 6 months of searching? COME ON YOU FUCKWIT! GIVE UP ON FLOGGING THAT HORSE, IT DIED ALONG WITH ANY CREDIBILITY YOU MAY EVER HAVE POSSESSED! Do people in the US have any access to UK news? The English government is in shreds because they also claimed that Iraq had WOMD, and went to war because of it. Now we all know that someone lied (we're just arguing about exactly who that was) and we're moving on. But good ol' George is still plugging that argument. Sometimes I have to wonder if America is actually on the same planet as the rest of us?

But there's more. George also brought up my favourite topic, the Irael/Palestine war in the Middle East. He was nice enough to admit that Palestine does actually deserve it's own state. How kind. He neglected to mention that the only fucking reason Israel even exists on a map at the moment is because America wants it to. It would have been swallowed by Palestine along time ago without miltary aid from the US. So why the fuck doesn't he give Israel their own state, and let Palestine have the rest, which is how it would have gone down. It's quite simple really. Palestine don't play the game America wants it to. Neither does Iraq. What.... you'd have to pay the same price for oil that all the rest of us do? How fucking sad. Welcome to the 21st century people! Oil is expensive. You can no longer afford to drive 4.5l V8 trucks. Get with the program.

I fucking hate politics. Someone please just drop some nukes and put us all out of our misery.

Where God divided by zero?Or just something to do with F1

As you'll be aware of if you follow Formula 1, or even just read Chris's site, there are numerous strange rumours flying around in the sport at the moment. For instance, that BAR Honda team boss, Dave Richards, is doing his utmoust to force Villeneuve out of the team before the end of his contract. Or the season even. What you may not be aware of, Chris, is some of the other affiliated rumours doing the rounds. For instance, that McLaren are doing their best to wrest Juan Pablo Montoya from Williams before his contract ends in 2005 (something I think is inevitable due to Monty's asking price and Frank's refusal to pay his drivers exorbitant sums of money). Or that Williams would seem to be seriously considering Jacques as a replacement for Montoya.

It all makes for very exciting times. Monty has been my favourite driver since he joined the F1 season, but Williams are my team, and with them lies my support. If JPM does malke the move from WilliamsBMW to West McLaren then I could think of no better driver to replace him than the 1997 World Champion. They're both cut from very similiar cloth - both aggressive on the track and outspoken off it. I think Jacques true form will be made quite apparent if he were to gain a drive in a top 3 or 4 team!

Anyways, that's all beside the point. I have a fucking crushing headache. The only reason I'm really writing this is because I need a few minutes for the drugs to kick and my right eyeball to stop throbbing before I head down to work again.

Adios Muchachos.

Happy birthday to you...

...happy birthday to you, haaaappy birrrrthhhday tooo yoouuuuu... happy birthday to you!

Hip hip horray. Hip hip horray. Nog 'n hip, horray.

Ok, enough of that nonsense. Just wanted to say a very happy 21st birthday to Natalie, I hope that it goes totally to plan and you have the greatest time. As well as a very happy 24th birthday to Marcie back home in Jo'burg. Missing you both like mad. Today makes me think of afternoons spent on the heads in Knysna, drinking Amstel while the sun slowly sank over the horizon. They definitely qualify as some of the best nights of my life!

The lowest form of wit...

A couple of days ago I opened and ate 2 Baileys fortune cookies. By some strange twist of fate both of them said the same thing... 'lucky in love'

Looking back at the history of my chequered love life I've come to the conclusion that they must've been sarcastic fortune cookies.

Downtime

Well my brief spell of non-blogging is over... again. This time is was brought on by yet another 2 days of work away from home (even though I take my Vaio with me I still never feel the inspiration to write when I'm away) followed by a pretty cool two days off in Southhampton, which I spent drinking too much alcohol, sleeping too late and eating McDoalds in hangover Limbo. Soton is very much a university town (city in this case) along the lines of Stellenbosch back home. Lots of parties, a nice relaxed atmosphere, and LOADS of cheap drinks.

Aside: This is what happens when you leave a laptop with a webcam unmonitored whilst drinking beer next to the pool - 6 months later you find photo's you never you you had, which isn't always a bad thing, apparently. Missing these chicks big style at the moment. Get yo' asses over here dammit! [left to right: Nat, Tam, Cails (drop me a comment if you want any phone numbers]



Well I just placed the ad for my car in the Southern edition of Autotrader so hold thumbs that it gets sold quickly, I really don't feel like fronting money for insurance and repayments on a car that I intend to sell.

Will write more later. Right now I'm going to finish watching Lilo and Stitch... which had me rolling in laughter last night.

Don't call me, I'll call you

Following my snotty letter to Phones 4 U I have been informed that their current policy is that a phone has to go in for repairs 3 times before they will replace it. So mine is in again for repairs. Obviously it will come out with all the same problems is went in with... again... after which I will demand a new phone. Anyone got any suggestions on a good handset? I like the features in the new T610, but not the styling... and style is important, very important. On the other hand the new Siemens slide-phone is wicked cool (no Bluetooth is worrying though!), but the buttons are too small. Or are they? Whatever. Let me know. I did however managed to get 2 months worth of my contract refunded to me in cash for the inconvenience that I've had to date. But I'm going on, the point is that I am no longer accesible on my mobile, not for the next week or so anyway. I will let you all know when I am again part of the mobile community.

Have to go wash the car now in preparation for it's Autotrader film shoot. Bye.

My letter to LloydsTSB

Re: ‘Late charge’ on my credit account.

I’m writing to both request an explanation for (and express my disgust at) being charged a £20 ‘late charge’ on my Gold credit account. When I initially signed up with LloydsTSB for the credit account I signed an agreement giving them access to my current account for any payments that may be required on my credit account. So under those circumstances I fail to understand why the minimum payment was not taken out on the date it was required, and instead I have had a £20 charge added to my account.

Besides my current account and my credit card I also have a growing savings account, as well as a loan, which I am currently paying back with interest, and all of these I have taken out with LloydsTSB. I need to remind anyone how easy it would be to consolidate that debt with another bank and transfer it all to a 6 month interest free account. I have never before had reason to fault Lloyds and have always been more than happy with the service I have received (and have never intended to transfer my money elsewhere) but I find this charge to be completely unacceptable. If it were a case of not having enough money in my current account to cover the credit payment then I would understand, but that wasn’t the case. All that was required was that you transfer the minimum payment from my current account to my credit account, which is exactly what I understood I was signing for when I opened the account.

I will be completely disgusted if the late charge isn’t reversed on my credit account and will regard it as a serious affront to the goodwill that exists between the bank and myself, which may very well result in me moving my funds elsewhere.

My final question, which is in some way linked to this complaint, is why I can’t transfer money from my current account to my credit account using your online services, especially as I can transfer it between my other accounts? I find it to be a huge shortfall in an otherwise excellent online banking system.

Regards,
Ian Wilson

And now I'm just waiting for their reply. So who's next? Come on, get in line, I'm pissed off and primed to have a go at just about anything right now!

My letter to Phones 4 U

To whom it may concern.

In February 2003 I purchased a Sony Ericsson T68i on contract with T-Mobile from your store in Salisbury, Wiltshire. Roughly two months after I purchased the package I started having problems with the phone. These ranged from not being able to make or receive calls at intermittent times (even when the signal bar was at full strength), to losing signal in mid-call or just dropping the call for no apparent reason. Shortly after the problems started I took the phone in to the store I originally purchased it from and was informed that the phone could only be replaced if I had brought it in within the first month following purchase but that it could be repaired free of charge. I agreed to this under the impression that following repair the phone would be functional.

Unfortunately this wasn't to be. Much to my dismay a couple of weeks after repair the phone started up with exactly the same faults as it had before. I struggled with it for a few more weeks while I went through all the motions with T-Mobile to ensure that it wasn't a sim or service provider fault, but when testing my sim in another phone it worked perfectly, which indicated that the fault was with the phone. So following that I took my phone in for repairs again at the store that I purchased it from. This time it was away for 6 weeks following a mix up at which saw my phone waiting a fortnight before even being sent to Sony.

Which brings me to the present, 3 days after receiving my phone back from the store, with it still suffering from all the symptoms I took it to be repaired for. I find it completely unacceptable that I pay a monthly contract for a package, of which half (the phone) is completely useless to me, and I would like to know exactly how you mean to resolve this problem. I'm tired of sending my phone in to Sony only to have it come back with the same problems, and while I know that the faults with my phone aren't in any way a function of your service I unfortunately have to take this up with you as the supplier of my phone and contract.

All I would really like is a new replacement phone without having to change my current contract or extend it a further 12 months. I'd be completely happy with a new [working] Sony Ericsson T68i as all I really want is what I originally paid for. However if there is another mobile phone alternative that you can offer me then I'll gladly hear it, but like I say I would be 100% happy with a working T68i.

Unfortunately if you fail to empathise with my situation and understand it from a customer point of view I will be forced to terminate my T-Mobile direct debit and when they contact me I will instruct them to take it up with you as the cause of the termination. While I understand that it isn't in any way the fault of the service provider that my phone is non functional I do believe that I purchased the phone and contract as part of a package from you, and you are failing to provide me with the service I am currently paying for.

As a side note I'm not writing this letter because I wish to go above the heads of the personnel at your Salisbury branch (who have been nothing but friendly and helpful), rather I'm writing it because I don't wish to drive out to Salisbury once again on some errand linked to my phone.

Regards,
Ian Wilson

Now I just need to wait for the reply. We'll see.

Pickchures... rant rant rant

Today I feel like going out and doing something super spontaneous and interesting, and taking loads of photo's and feeling like I'm experiencing something new. But I'm not going to. Why? Because I'm tired and lazy and stuck in the English equivalent of Pof Adder. There just isn't much of interest to do out here beside admire the scenery, which I've had more than enough of over the last year.

So instead I'm going to sit in bed, listen to some tchoons (probably Chevelle or Audioslave or something else modern rockish) and work on my London job applications. Alternatively I could drive ino Salisbury and shove my T68i so far up the arse of the first Phone's 4 U employee I see it will need to be surgically removed. Oh yes. Believe it or not, but after 6 weeks of repairs it's back to doing it's usual shit. Now usually I'm the kind of laid back relaxed bloke that doesn't kick up a fuss, but this is just too much. I'm paying a fucking monthly contract for a piece of shit mobile phone whose only use to me is that I can play Battleship on it. Fuck that. I'm getting new phone from the bastards, and if I don't then I'll just stop the direct debit on my account and tell T-Mobile to go fuck themselves too.

And LloydsTSB can go fuck themselves while we're about it as well. I signed an agreement with them that gives them access to my current account so that they can take the payments I owe on my credit card. So I have expendable cash in my current account right. More than enough to cover the measly £14 per month payment I have to make. But do you think they took out the money when the payment was due? Oh no. Nooooooo. They waited a few days after that and then added a £20 late charge to it. Now I'd understand if I didn't have the money available to pay them, but I did. It was right there waiting to me transferred across. So why the hell didn't they just take the payment when it was due to them? Because they're a fucking bunch of squirrel monkeys, that's why! They're a fucking bunch of thieving squirrel monkeys at that. So now I'm going to go fight with them too. I mean, do I really need to physically go to the
'wank' and pay the fucking account in person when they have my signed permission to take the sodding money when they need it. FUUUUUUUCK!

There's just not enough hours in the day for me to fight with everyone I need to fight with right now.

The end of my rant.

You will be mine

Oh yes you will. I've been scouring Reed over the last few gathering a list of jobs that I'm going to apply for in London. Amongst the lot that I've earmarked as being interested in is one in particular (in Battersea, South West London) that I'm excited about. Now I just have to create some time to sort out a cover letter and update my CV and see where I end up. A long time ago I learnt not to get too expectant about job applications... it wasn't long before I learnt that no matter how perfect I thought I was for a particular job, the interviewing person either didn't agree with me, or there was someone else even more perfect for the position. Still... I happen to think that this particular vacancy is right up my street and also more in line with where I see my career going. So hold thumbs for me.

I spent last night all by myself in a completely empty hotel. Scary as fucking hell considering that I watched The Others for the first time the night before.... and I'm a 'frady cat like that.

Oh yeah, I got a death threat from someone the other day, for the first time in my life. I laughed my arse off when I got it. And pretty much in his face, which perhaps wasn't the best approach. But still, give me a break, it was because I refused him service at the bar. Fucking idiot. Do I think he's really going to kill me. No, not really. But he's still a fucking idiot for saying it.

Anyways, it's back to the hotel for another exciting night in 'No-where's-ville'. Laters.

Post Remy night

Ok. So as much as I may have developed one stonking taste for Remy Martin, the morning after heralded a rather negative milestone in my life. I was late late for work... 40 minutes late!

So after getting a phone call from work asking if I was still coming in I bailed out of bed, stumbled into the shower, hacked at my face for a while (razor + hangover = personal injury), threw on some clothes and then did the Juan Pablo thing in my car all the way to Hindon. In the end it wasn't much of a problem but it still irks me. I think I must have done the whole turning of the alarm in my sleep thing, which is just so not me.

I've just come home now for a couple of hours and saw the bottle from last night. It's just about empty. Which would explain me being late this morning as it was full last night when I opened it. Oops. Best not make that a habit then.

Besides that not much else. My car is going up for sale on Autotrader this Wednesday. I've just decided that I don't really need it that badly and as such is a expense that I don;t have to shoulder.

I have a new love in my life...

... Remy Martin.

My mind is numb, my body is [fairly] functional. Reminiscent of drinking Tequila with Wayne. Before now I've always regarded myself as a whiskey man, but Remy is a whole new experience. Viva la Remy.