The Female Customer Service Agent With the Headscarf on the DLR
I took the DLR to Docklands tonight to see the SS Robin. I’ll post some pictures later in the week about that ship.
The DLR is driverless, but trains carry a Customer Service Agent who checks tickets, answers questions and drives the train if something goes wrong.
The Agent tonight was a young Muslim woman with a headscarf and a DLR jacket doing a more than competent job. And all the customers were handing over their tickets without any fuss, as they should do.
Isn’t this how it all should be?
What Is A Pastafarian?
The answer’s here!
It shows that the Austrians have a better sense of humour than I thought!
Halifucked Or Spam From the Halifax
Over the last couple of days, I have received several spam e-mail from a marketing company, working on behalf of the Halifax. They all offered me a new credit card, which is like offering someone like Andy Murray a new tennis racket, as the ones I’ve got, are perfectly adequate for my modest needs.
So not only do we have bail out this wunch of bankers, but we have to endure their spam in our inboxes. Interestingly, it very much looks genuine and some of it has come to e-mail addresses, I’ve not used in at least ten years. I’ve kept them as spam traps for tossers like these and they’ve worked well.
Interestingly, the Halifax web site appears to have no means of contacting the bank on it, that is obvious to an irate non-customer.
The IKEA Obstacle Race
I need some stuff from IKEA and want it to be delivered, as that way I don’t have to carry it all the way on a bus. The total was of around £300 and was a total of 10 pieces.
The order went through efficiently from the web site and they said delivery would be around the 16th of July. I do take IKEA a bit sceptically about delivery dates, as some of the items I have ordered in the past, have arrived a few days after the originally quoted delivery date. But as someone who understands scheduling very well, I know that you can’t meet all the quoted dates, but I would have been quite happy to wait a few more days.
However, yesterday they phoned me and the courier firm said that the earliest they could do deliveries would be the 4th of August, which is quite a way into the future and four weeks later than I was originally quoted.
So this morning, I cacelled the order. I still want the goods, but they are just a bit much to bring home on the bus. And one of the pieces wouldn’t fit in my son’s old Mini.
Why is it that other companies like John Lewis, Dixons and Marks and Spencer, seem to get the last delivery right, but others, like IKEA just cause more and more hassle?
Incidentally, in this case, I would have paid a few extra pounds to get the item delivered on a day convenient to myself.
Are Fake Job Adverts Returning?
I haven’t seen any for some time, but this one turned up this morning.
Hot Jobs from Reliable and Successful Company Running its business since 2005, Company has several openings for goal-oriented and independent individuals looking for excellent career opportunities.
Requirements
– 25+ years old
– UK citizenship
– No criminal record
– Good credit history
– Basic computer skills
– A proven level of secondary educationWhat we offer
– high and stable income
– exciting career opportunities
– two weeks’ paid holiday a year
– great team to work with
– bonuses and our private employee loyalty programme benefits
– and many other thingsWhat you do is just work from home and get advantage of all these opportunities, as the job we offer requires only a few hours of your time spent on your computer.
You are full of energy, learn fast and seek for best career opportunities? Do contact us at xxx@xxx.com and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
We look forward to welcoming you as a new employee.
Sincerely,
irvine thierry
It was a bit better than most of the previous scams, which are designed to get your bank account details, so you can donate large sums of money to the criminals. It was even sent from what looked like a valid UK e-mail address, although mine was addressed to a man called Fidole Shem, who is definitely not me.
It was also marked by my anti-spam system as spam.
But what was a real giveaway was the low level of paid holidays. I wouldn’t get out of bed for a job like that!
So it went the way of the others and I dispatched it humanely with the delete key.
Scottish Independence! Surely Northern Ireland Needs It!
Yet again, Northern Ireland is rioting and causing mayhem.
If we are giving the Scots and the Welsh a degree of independence, in these times of austerity, shouldn’t we cut Northern Ireland adrift and leave it to its own resources?
I just don’t like seeing bigots burning my taxes as a form of entertainment! Perhaps, they should impose a local income tax!
Thea Ford
This is a singer I know. For more info click here. Hopefully, I’m going to see her perform at the O2 Academy on August 5th.
The Interaction Between Coeliac Disease, Hay Fever and My Stroke
I had the stroke about twelve months ago and I thought that by now I would be starting to feel better, but as time goes on, I seem to be feeling worse and worse.
Take today, I got up just around six and felt reasonably good after about eight hours of sleep. I used the hay fever spray on my nose, but when I left home about eleven, I felt that the optimism of the early morning had disappeared. My left shin was tight, as it often is and my nose was blocked solid with the hay fever. After lunch with a friend, I returned to the Angel to do a bit of shopping and could hardly walk back from the bus to my house, such was the tightness in my shin and the pain in my left arm. I checked my e-mails and then lay on the bed, where I fell asleep for a couple of hours. I feel reasonably bright now, although there is a pain in the back of my left shin. What is strange is that I only get pains in my left shin and left arm. I know that was the side of the stroke, but I’ve always had occasional pain in my left arm from where a bully broke it at school and over the past couple of years, I’ve had pain in the back of my left shin, since I trod on a razor shell on Holkham Beach. I couldn’t be sure, but these pains could have been worse in the spring, or should that be hay fever time.
In trying to find out what is wrong, an MRI Scan has shown problems in my neck, where a nerve might be trapped. But it’s nothing serious that good physiotherapy shouldn’t be able to sort out.
If I go back a few weeks, when the pollen was low for a few days, all of the pain disappeared. So it does seem that the pain is partly caused by the pollen levels, which at the moment are moderate. But then they have been for several weeks.
Another point is that at times my gut feels not quite right. It’s almost like being glutened and it feels as though something not too nice is upsetting my digestion. In some ways, it’s something that may have plagued me for years. So do histimines created by the pollen upset your digestion system? Especially, if you’re a coeliac.
I have a feeling that the only solution is to take a gluten free cruise.
Anne Boleyn at Shakespeare’s Globe
I’d never been to the Globe on the South Bank and I don’t think I’ve ever been to the theatre on a Sunday before in the UK.
The picture shows the outside in the fine weather.
Outside Shakespeare's Globe
And this one shows the people inside just before the play started.
Inside Shakespeare's Globe
I enjoyed the experience a lot and it is good venue. The play by Howard Brenton was good and was very much worth seeing.
I’m looking forward to seeing some Shalespeare in a theatre similar in layout to those for which it was written.
Is It Legal To Take Inflated Balloons On A London Bus?
I took this picture today by London Bridge.
Balloons On a London Bus
It clearly shows that some of the passengers have inflated balloons.
Is this legal?
I ask the question, as when C and I were students at Liverpool University in the 1960s, the buses there displayed a notice that clearly stated that the carrying of inflated balloons was not allowed.
The Anonymous Widower 