POOR WHITE WORKING CLASS AFRIKANER TRAILER TRASH

(see Triomph in the Internet Movie Database)

Today is surely one of the low points of this year.

• two maths books have been found to have serious errors, probably thanks to our repro house not getting on with PageMaker
• something I understood someone else to be doing hasn’t been done and somehow I look bad for this – because I I didn’t chase it up
• a science book has been printed with a factually correct but inappropriately-worded cover
• bad feeling growing between two of my colleagues
• When phoning my warehouse colleagues to tell them not to dispatch any of the science book I was two seconds away from tears…

and to cap it all, I’m meant to be designing a poster for a fairtrade event and I’m totally out of ideas

Domestic situation is getting much better but I still don’t want to go back to work tomorrow

The pavement around some flats near the West Port is being relaid and a temporary pedestrian route has been created with metal barriers. It’s only just wide enough for normal pedestrians. At the Community Council planning committee meeting, I insisted we make a noise about it.

The planning convenor suggested I email a draft complaint, via the secretary, to the rest of CC and ask their approval to send it to Fife Council. The secretary metaphorically slapped me round the face with a wet fish and told me to just tidy my email and send it straight to the local Fife Council official and local FIfe Councillor, CCing to the Chair of CC and the press.

Here’s the Courier article.

My phone service providers annoyed me by sending an inaccurate bill. Here’s my response

Dear (name withheld for fear of being sued for libel)

I have just received your bill dated 03 February 2005, billing account UW24800566AAAAA. I tried to phone you this evening to sort this out but was cut off by your call-waiting system.

Since today is 18th February 2005, this bill has obviously been posted just under 2 weeks after it was generated.

This bill mentions “charges for previous period £108·88”. This would frighten a gullible person into paying much more than they owe. Fortunately for me, I keep accurate records.

• £43·22 of this bill is from a bill dated 03 December 2004 (due to be paid on 29th December 2004). I did not receive this bill until I arrived home after Christmas. The day I did so, I phoned you and gave your operator my switch card details. Your operator accepted these and told me the amount would soon be charged to that account. This was 7th January 2005.
• I noticed a while later that this had not been charged and again phone you to pay by switch. This was around 17th January. Again I was told that the amount would be charged to my account within 10 days. This did not happen.
• Some time later, I received a bill dated 05 January 2005, payable on 28th January 2005. This bill mentioned that I still owed you £43·22 from previous bills. Since I saw this as your problem – I had twice tried to pay by switch and my details had been accepted both times – on 1st February I paid the £65·66 from that billing period. Your operator, Alex, accepted the switch details (the same account as used previously) and £65·66 was charged to that account within a reasonable time.
• This still left the matter of the “outstanding”; £43·22. Since I do not like owing money, on 11th February, I phoned you and spoke to your operator Paul. I gave him the details of another switch account. Again, he accepted these details! Again the amount has not been charged.

So now we turn to the current bill. You are trying to charge me for £43·22 which I do owe you but have tried to pay three times. Also you are trying to charge me £65·66 which I have already paid.

Don’t waste time writing apologies. Instead, here is what you are to do:

• First, charge £43·22 to account XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXX, sort code XX-XX-XX, expiry date XX/XX, issue X.
• Next, issue a bill for the 01 January 2005 to 31 January 2005 billing period only. This will be £53·90, inclusive of VAT. This bill will also show that all previous periods have been paid off.
• Next, I will contact on the first weekday after receiving the correct bill to pay this, again by switch. However you must wait for me to contact you to know which account to charge.

To conclude, you send out bills which are late and incorrect and your phone system does not work.

Yours sincerely

Dr Bruce M Ryan

JJ was much less subtle…

~myceliumme~

lj friends collage by . make yours here. updates & questions here.
original by and here. updates & questions here.

http://www.gorillamask.net/essay.shtml

thanks to

THE SQUIRREL JOKE!
Just because youre profane doesnt mean youre not
hilarious. Youre the unique kind of joke
people remember for a long time.

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Well, my brother (Ian, as mentioned in the previous entry) is a bombardier (equivalent to corporal) in the Royal Artillery. He’s just passed a military intelligence course. So, presumably as some kind of reward, he’s due for a four-month tour of Iraq starting in April. I can’t say I’m at all pleased or proud of this. I am annoyed and concerned for him and for our mum – if the past is anything to go by then she won’t sleep all the time he’s away.

Up until now, Gulf War II has been affecting me morally and politically (i.e how can I consider voting for a ‘labour’ government which is manifestly not socialist? [For me, socialism includes some form of pacifism, not least because the majority of victims of wars are working class, socialism’s natural constituency.]) Now, for the first time since Gulf War I, when Ian was in Kuwait, it becomes personal. If anything happens to him or my mum as a result then it becomes very personal.

Highly pissed-off – watch this space

LJ Friends Meme by

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• You must tell 9 people about this game.
• Jayne is the one that you love.
• Lena is one you like but can’t work out.
• You care most about Julia.
• Ian is the one who knows you very well.
• Dad is your lucky star.
• There Ain’t Half Been Some Clever Bastards is the song that matches with Jayne.
• The Gunner’s Dream is the song for Lena.
• Welcome To The Machine is the song that tells you most about YOUR mind.
• and The Unknown Soldier is the song telling you how you feel about life
Take this quiz

• There Ain’t Half Been Some Clever Bastards Ian Dury and the blockheads (B-side of Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick)
• The Gunner’s Dream Pink Floyd (from The final cut (a requiem for the post-war dream). This song describes the last moments of Roger Waters’ dad as he falls from his burning bomber to his death and his (presumed) dream that his and all the other wartime deaths would be worthwhile, that a better, safer, saner world might result. Very apt, considering Lena [my mother] was born Jewish in Vienna in 1930. Of her family, only she, her sister and her parents avoided the concentration camps (thanks to her dad’s employer who sent him on a business trip to England)
• Welcome To The Machine Pink Floyd (from Wish you were here TOTALLY APT!)
• The Unknown Soldier Roy Harper (from the album The unknown soldier some very beautiful and poignant songs about love, human survival and William Wallace and Robert the Bruce fighting the English in the 14th century!)