Sunday, February 25, 2007

Nothin doing

Its been a nothing week this week. Nothing particularly exciting, dramatic or interesting has happened. With Sky back on I've been catching up on the 'lost' episodes of "24", "Prison Break" and "Futurama" that was locked down. Also been re watching the first season of "House" on dvd.

I must say that from the "Futurama" episode 'Why Must I Be A Crustacean In Love' I have picked up a quote from Zoidberg to live life by;

Leela: 'It's amazing that your people can fall in love so fast.'
Zoidberg: 'Love? That word is unknown here. I'm simply looking for a female swollen with eggs, to accept my genetic material.'
Fry: 'You and me both brother.'

I'm now 4 xmas cards down now with 2 to go and I'm also coming up with ideas for a second series 6 cards featuring the same characters.

Saturday night was spend round a mate's house; Nik-e who I went college with. I hadn't seen her for a while. So we did some catching up, and she showed me her songwriting skills, playing me the track recorded by the singer she writes for, then singing me the other unrecorded tracks herself. I have to say I was very impressed.

It was my brother, Brian's birthday on Wednesday and I gave him my old PSP games console plus a new game and film. He was over the moon with his gift. He had said before that he would happily accept my old PSP when I bought me a white one to replace it! The white PSP will come next month as a substitute to the PS3 which I wont be able to afford come launch day: 23rd March.

And I just found this photo on the internet. looks just like me I think.








thanks to usemycomputer.com

Thursday, February 22, 2007

1000 hits and counting!

Well the heading says it all really. 1003 visitor hits to this site since October, but 2469 actual pages viewed! Which means that the average visitor looks at a couple of pages each time! To be honest I'd like 1000 hits a day, but that will have to wait until I turn squish pages into a porn blog!!

The Sky saga resolved?

The Sky engineer came and went yesterday, and our system apparently now functioning normally; but he didn't 'fix' anything.

I seems to me that Sky believed I was fraudulently claiming their 'multiroom' subscription (full price for the 1st box, then only £10 for the 2nd box), the engineer simply ran a diagnostic through the menu system then rang Sky to confirm the box's location (address), then left. No screwdrivers, no ladders, no replacement parts. I wasn't there at the time, but my Mom pulled him up, "£65 for 5 mins work?".
To which the engineer responded, "I only get £7 of it, plus you son could have moved out and was still trying to get 'multiroom.'"

As it turns out I finally found my repair policy with Sky that very morning, so at work I called them and they refunded my £65 callout charge and with the equipment 'fixed' Sky should also return another £100 of over charges!

Now the fun begins. I'm gonna write a letter of complaint. I've had 3x £20 bank charges, had my viewing cut off for a week, had to shell out £165 over the odds (which I've not been able to afford, only to get it all back!) and had a knock on my credit rating! And for what?...

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Britney Spears

Everyone seems to commenting about Britney at the moment so I thought I would too. Or perhaps not..









thanks to phun.org and all relevant posters

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Nancy and Devinder (Geoff's birthday)

Last night I saw my college chums Nancy and Devinder. I was Nancy's boyfriend's 30th birthday and she had arranged a surprise party for him. He thought they were just going out for dinner! Devinder was there with her long time partner Chris who was actually one of our course tutors at the time. I went solo; as I said 'Why bring a date when you can find one!'

It was a really good night, buffet laid on and a DJ, who play and interesting mix of commercial hip-hip and disco with a sprinkle of rock and roll at the end at the request of birthday boy.

The DJ played Candy by Cameo at one point during the night and apparently there's a dance that goes with it so I joined in with Nancy and a couple of other lasses in the middle of the dance floor. I had to learn it up as I went along, but with the second playing of the song I had picked it up like a pro. Ooh yeah!

Happy birthday Geoff.

My day off: The results!

Well, I almost got everything I needed done on my day off. I didn't manage to pay off all the debts, cause one needs the giro slips to accompany the cheques, and with my next bills to be issued imminently, there would have been and overlap in the post and I'd still have to make the next payment as well!

I got a wheel for my car from the breakers yard: £25 including tyre. That's cheap! Put it this way, the average price I hear for a tyre down Kwik Fit is £40-60. God knows how much a new wheel costs on top of that! However, Vauxhall called me up the same day and said they had been given authorisation from the lease company to fit a new wheel, but I'm not gonna go pick it up because that might trigger the £150 fine. Hopefully the authorisation doesn't mean its already paid for!

I ran out of petrol on the way to the petrol station! Had to walk a mile there and back with me fuel can, and my nephew in tow who struggled to keep up with my pace. Doubly so because he was wearing them 'wheelies'. Bless him!

Paid Sky their £187, but because giro slips take 3-5 day to clear I've got a blue screen till next week, Monday or Tuesday! And in case you didn't know, Sky+ records onto an internal hard drive. That gets locked down too, so I can't even watch the hours of TV I've already recorded!! Grrrrrrrr!

Work related

Well I've got a run on at work and well on the way to smashing all 3 of my targets this month. With a week and a half still to go I've sold 6 properties, on a target of 7; had 3 solicitor sign ups on a target of 2; and 7 mortgage appointment on a target of 11. I'm lead salesperson again this month and even had my regional manager rang me to say well done! And I get my new car on the 1st of March. Company car, I know but I get to take it home. C'mon!

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Busy bee!

Usually, come my day off I have nothing much to do but sit around and scratch my arse like a baboon in the zoo. But today, just like last week, I'm gonna have to run around all day like a headless chicken to get everything done! (What's with all the animal references; bee, baboon, chicken?)

- I've gotta go to the doc's and pick up a prescription.

- Go and pay off all my outstanding debts (I got me a consolidation loan this week, but cause my credit rating is shot to pieces I can only get an APR of 900% (I kid, but not by much)) so 4 debts become 1.

- I've also got to go to a breakers yard and see if I can find a replacement wheel for my car, cause last week I damaged the wheel so badly it can't be fixed and if I get a brand new one the company will know and I get fined. (can't afford a fine)

- Buy my brother's birthday present (don't tell him though!).

- Tidy my room, because the Sky engineer is coming next week and here is a pic of my room at the moment.








Thanks to worldofstock.com for the image

A challenge met.

I've already got in trouble this week for gloating but here I am about to do it again! Will I ever learn?

This week, on Tuesday I think, I finally surpassed Charlene's myspace visitor numbers. As the only other one of my friends links to have a counter, she naturally became a target for me to shoot for. Her myspace has had way more track time than my blog but 'I've now had more hits!'

Yay me!!

Her page can be found here, Charlene's World

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Shouting at the Sky.

GRRRRRR! Yesterday I went to bed with my blood boiling.
I came home from work to find that my satellite TV at been switched off, so I called up Sky to see why. Turns out I owed them money. The money they didn't take from my account because their computer needs 14 days in which to process a direct debt. So my payment date sailed by without them taking their money, so now now I've gotta stare at a blank blue screen till at least next week, by which time their computer should have caught up!

AND, to cap it all off; they are charging me an extra £33 a month more because one of my Sky+ decoders is still not ringing them back. I've had to book an engineer to come take a look at it next week at a cost of £65!

Excuse my French but right now I'm f**king p***ed off with Sky!

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Beginners Luck!

On Friday evening I went to one of the new casinos at Casa Selbs. So new is the casino that they have only one game installed; poker.

I was greeted by the croupier who was suitable attired but refused to serve food to the customers; namely me, Jason and Chris. Yeah, maybe it was just poker night round Dave's house, but to me it was a visit to a Vegas style casino!

Before the game began I got to put little Lucy too bed and she told me I was her best friend which warmed me lil heart. She'd also said that she preferred me to her own dad. 'In your face Dave!'

All 4 of us were relative novices at poker but Jason had never played before, so did well to win on the night taking home his £20 winnings! Git!

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Doing the rounds

Everything was white, that was this morning; but now everything is brown, covered in dirty slush.

This morning up woke up early to visit the doctors to get a new supply of inhalers for my asthma. I was fun to drive in the fresh snow! Next I popped into Barkingside, to my old office to see one of my old colleagues and do a bit of reminiscing.

Then to my bank. I pay insurance for my satellite equipment but can't find who I pay it to. So I went to see if my bank could give me a company name. (Still ain't fixed the defective Sky+ decoder). Then I headed to Holloway to meet Nichola for lunch.

Nichola is an old friend from my Iceland days. I hadn't see her in a long long time. I hadn't met her 9 month old son Jayden either, so it was great to spend some time with them. I think Jayden liked me too, he never fussed when I picked him up or held him. Also got 10 minutes with Chris (another Iceland co-worker).

THEN I had to get a flat tire on my car fixed. Picked up a flat Tuesday morning on my way to work. Had to change it in my suit and everything! With my car going back at the end of this month, everything on it has to be in working order!

Finished off my day working on another of my Xmas cards. Phew!

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

I keep my job! Yay!

I had my finally performance review meeting this week. Well, less of a meeting and more of a handshake, a hug and a congratulation.

Six months ago my area manager expressed concern with my performance at work, she felt I was missing my targets to often and gave me 3 months to improve or ship out. The first month showed improvement, but the 2nd was a disaster and my area manager felt that I was not going to succeed at that point. However in month 3, I hit 2 of my 3 targets, actually doubled one of them. My Area felt then that I had shown enough of an improvement to give me another 3 months, but not as intently as before. I had told her I felt crowded by the fortnightly reviews.

Over the last 3 months I hit 2 out of 3 targets each month and only narrowly missed the third which didn't bother my Area too much as she would much rather a narrow miss than a woeful shortfall. For January I actually hit all 3 targets; the first time I've achieved that feat since joining the company!

My targets for the curious is to sell 7 properties every month; book 11 successful mortgage appointment every month; and refer 2 clients successfully to use our in-house solicitors for either sale or purchase!!

Monday, February 05, 2007

The tooth; and nothing but.

What small and white and costs £70?

No. Not the new ipod.

My bloody filling after I cracked a tooth on some popcorn!

More expense! Hmmm >:-/

Sunday, February 04, 2007

The birthday oops!

Last night I went out for my old friend Jade's birthday. Or I thought I did.
I met Jade, can't remember how many, years ago when we both attended Hip Hop dance classes at Pineapple studios. Admittedly we haven't been that close since we stopped going but stay in touch by sms. I got an invite to her birthday this year and she told me some others from the dance class were coming too. I was really looking forward to the pseudo reunion.

Jade lives in east London and had her party in a club near her home in Old Street. Suni from work came too. Gregg was due to come as well but couldn't make it ultimately. We arrived at the party but couldn't see Jade. I texted her to find out where she was and she replied the the party was actually yesterday (Friday night!). Oh no!

Thankfully Old Street is not far from Shorditch and a plethora of bars so we headed there and still had ourselves a good night!

Saturday, February 03, 2007

"I told you to get it serviced"

Phew. I've just spent 8 hours of my day off today working on the first of my Xmas cards. Armed with the magazines Advanced Photoshop and ImagineFX I used some of the hints tips and tutorials to help me along. I haven't used photoshop in anger for many years, a lot of the time was spent finding my way around the program again. I started from the line drawing and recoloured anew. Below is the finished article.

original line drawing
first version all them years ago
2007 version

this artwork remains the property of green18.