Why am I washing my rubbish?
Just that really. Recycling shouldn’t involve washing stuff you would normally throw away. Fin
Weekend? What weekend?
I swear the weekends get shorter and shorter. I’m not sure if this is due to getting older, having kids, or both but I would much rather work for 2 days and take 5 days off! I’ve checked my lottery ticket and I didn’t win £26 million this week :(
Ebook Readers - redux
Well I finally caved over Christmas and purchased myself a Sony PRS-300. I have to say, I was dubious at first, but after using it for about two weeks I’ve already read about 3 novels and a number of short stories on the device so have a good feel for it.
I have to say it’s changed the way I read books. No mean feat.
First it’s a near instant download meaning no waiting for the postman, or missing him and having to take a trip to the sorting office. Choose a book, and there it is, start reading immediately.
Second, adjustable font sizes! Who would have thought such a simple feature would be so useful? Especially in poor light.
Third, the ability to store 100’s of books on the device means I can easily swap between novels when I get bored of one (and bookmark my place for when I return). Yes you can do this with paper books, but not on a train! At first I was considering the PRS-600 as the lack of an SD card slot on the PRS-300 put me off, but really, it’s not a concern.
Fourth, battery life is amazing. Listed as 7000 page turns I don’t think I’ve had to charge my device since I’ve had it. Yes, paper books dont run out of battery, but unlike other electronic devices, I truly haven’t had to think about charging the device, and thats how it should be.
Highly recommended.
Back to work and the "big freeze"
Well, I’m well and truly back to work now. Thursday and over the hump of the first week back after a break. Bloody cold though. My office has been at 6 degrees C most of the week… brrrrrrrr
That being said, it IS winter. It amazes me that the whole of the UK seems in shock that it’s cold… DURING WINTER! Who would have thought it possible?
Just wait till the conveyor stops working, THEN we’ll get some winters! I’m buying shares in rocksalt…
Ice and snow... and ice.
Well due to the recent inclement weather I managed to slip on black ice and fall badly on my left ankle. When I hit the floor I had some nice white flashes and nausea, leading me to believe I had broken something.
As it turns out my ankle was simply sprained, (it has now gone a rather fetching shade of black and purple). I was surprised at the time though as a few bystanders rushed to assist me with one good Samaritan picking me up off the floor and helping me to a bench. A few shopkeepers rallied around and called for assistance and in no time at all a security guard turned up asking if I needed an ambulance. As i’m a big strong man (cough) I declined the ambulance but the response was heartwarming. It reaffirmed my belief in the human species.
Between my recent experience of excellent customer service and now good Samaritans, I’ve got a warm fuzzy feeling inside which may be because it’s Christmas (or because of the painkillers I’m taking for my sprain)
Service
Had a very odd and pleasantly surprising day today.
First I had to arrange a same day courier delivery at work and received excellent service from TNT “Special Services”. The man at the end of the phone actually rang me back when he said he would and kept in contact throughout the delivery. Amazing.
Second I had to sort out my pension with Standard Life. Rang them up and initially was disheartened by there initial “speech recognition” receptionist. As in “please say how we can help you today”, and “please tell us your phone number”. In the past I’ve had dreadful results with these type of things and usually just had to repeat myself when I got through to a human. But in this instance the nice man at the end of the phone actually had all the details I had passed to the robot AND gave me his real name and a direct dial number for him. He said he would sort out all my queries and call me back and strangely I believed him… Amazing.
Thirdly I had to make a payment on my car lease. Rang up Citroen, spoke to a human straight off and managed to make a payment from my bank in under about 120 seconds. Amazing.
These levels of service are unknown to me. There is hope for the world yet! In the “normal world” I would have expected each of the above to take at least 30 minutes holding in a queue being bombarded by dreary decades old christmas songs. But no… I was quickly and courtesy dealt with, by a human, on every occasion.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Liquid water? On a planet? Fairly nearby? Wow. I mean, really…. wow. This means that there is a very high chance of finding earth-like worlds out there. Infact this one was found fairly easily, which means either they were very lucky or these things are super common. Now all we need is FTL to get us there!
