In Denial (Or More Accurately, On De Nile)

I realised after my last post that I hadn't blogged about my trip to egypt yet.

I went in April, trying to get the good weather but miss the worst of
the heat - which didn't actually work. Cairo was fairly hot, but
Luxor and Aswan were incredibly hot! It was close to unbearable, and
i'm only glad that I didn't go in June or July.

I went with a company called Egypt Today, who specialise in trips to
Egypt. They were really good, very well organised, and they look
after you every step of the way - you're never left wondering what
you're supposed to do or how to get to where you're going.

The local guides do try to sell you extra tours, but then that's
egypt. Everyone tries to sell you something, and as it says in the
guidebooks, you have to tip for everything. And unfortunately they're
used to rich american tourists who throw dollars around, so they're
often not happy being tipped in egyptian pounds.

It's an amazing country, though. I flew to cairo, saw the pyramds and
the egyptian museum, then caught the luxury sleeper train down to
aswan. Then I joined a cruise boat to cruise back up to aswan. Both
the train and boat were a great way to see some of the countryside.

All the temples do get a bit much - there are so many, and in the heat
they all start blurring together in your mind. But they really are
all amazing, and they're in amazing condition considering how old they
are! It's all really impressive and awe inspiring.

Here are a couple of photos from the trip. The Temple of Philae:


And Pyramids, Desert, Camels, and me:

Toyrun 2007

The 2007 Toyrun was last Sunday, and it was a particularly special one as it was the 25th Anniversary.

As usual, it was great fun. They estimate there were 6000 bikes at Maynardville, although it seemed like more! And this time I was riding in the thick of it - bikes as far as you could see in front of you, bikes next to you, and if you got a chance to turn around, bikes as far as you could see behind you! It really is the most amazing feeling, and the atmosphere is incredible. So many people lining the roads, clapping and cheering you on, trying to touch the bikers - it really makes you feel good. And of course, the most important part is the toys for the kids; they had two full trailers of toys at Maynardville alone.

We had tried to organise all the bikers from work to go together. Unfortunately it ended up with only two of us being able to make it, and then we couldn't find each other in the crowd at Ottery - and looking at the pic below, you can see why - and that was only a tiny section of the parking area! (Mine's the one on the right, in the front of the photo).

Unfortunately, it's crappy cellphone photos again, but here are a couple of photos from Maynardville:

Another Telkom Ripoff

I know, it's not exactly news that Telkom is ripping us off, or that Telkom's monopoly and backwards thinking is bad for the country.

But I came across a new way that Telkom is ripping us off, and it's one that I certainly wasn't aware of, and I'm sure most people don't know about it.

I noticed a bunch of phone calls on my last Telkom account, from my landline to a cellphone, which weren't answered, didn't go to voicemail, but were charged for.

Astonishingly, I got a reply from Telkom today saying that the charges are correct. Their explanation is that even though the calls weren't answered, they crossed to another network and thus will be charged for.

This is pretty shocking - I'm sure most people aren't aware that you're charged for any call from a Telkom line to another network, regardless of whether or not the call is answered! I suspect it's not actually legal, although Telkom would probably say that it was 'answered' by the other network, therefore it was connected and will be charged for. So all those "missed calls" that you make are actually costing you money - you might as well chat to the person for a minute, because it's costing you the same. And because the minimum call charge is so high, this is even more of a ripoff. And don't try testing your ringtone by phoning your cell from your landline, becasue it's going to cost you each time you try it out.

I wonder when this started, and whether other networks do the same thing. If I phone a Telkom line from my Vodacom cell, and I hang up before anyone answers, will I be charged? Or, if we take Telkom out of the equation - if I phone a MTN number from my Vodacom cell, will I be charged then if the other person hangs up without answering?

So be aware that you might be able to cut down on your phone bill by not phoning cell numbers that you think might be engaged, that you think the other person might not answer (even if you don't let it go to voicemail), or that you think the other person might not be able to take your call and might hang up without answering. Kinda cuts down on the usefulness of the phone system, doesn't it?

Couches and Coricraft

So with moving last week, I've had to go shopping :-) I've got a lot of stuff from before I left, but I needed to get some furniture, like a computer desk, mattress, and couches.

I looked all over for nice couches, and just couldn't find anything I liked. And not just not at a reasonable price, but not at any price! (Well, except for some lovely leather couches at R20000, but that's a bit more than I'm willing to pay).

But then I found some lovely couches at Coricraft. Slip-cover, so easy to clean, and incredibly comfortable. And on sale! The only catch is, they make them up specially for you, so it takes 4 to 5 weeks. And I've seen a lot of bad things about Coricraft on the net - delivering late and damaged, etc.

But they're so nice that I ordered them anyway. They're just so amazingly soft and comfortable!

I was pleasantly suprised - their original estimate was pretty much spot on (I got a call after 4 weeks saying that the couches were ready). The only problem was with delivery - apparently I live in a morning delivery area, so they didn't want to deliver in the afternoon, which is the only time that anyone was available to be at my place to accept delivery (a bit of a cheek, considering how much delivery costs!). But I got it sorted, and they did deliver in the afternoon, and when they were delivered they were in excellent condition.

So kudos to Coricraft, and hopefully this post will counterbalance some of the negative things I've seen about them :-)

Online Again!

Finally I've got broadband! Dealing with Telkom is always tricky, but it actually wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be.

I moved last month, and so I needed a new telkom line installed (well, activated, since the physical line was already there) and thereafter adsl.

Picking up the form wasn't too bad, although they neglect to tell you on their site that you need your ID book to be able to apply. Amazingly the telkom shop wasn't busy, but nobody could tell me if a deposit would be required, what the criteria for this were, or how much it might be (and I'm not prepared to pay a deposit, since you only get it back when you cancel your line, so it's effectively a donation rather a deposit). I actually still don't know, since you can't get a realtime balance, and you only get your first account about two months after your line is activated!

When I picked up the form, they said it might be about 2 weeks for the line to be installed. The next working day, I was amazed to receive an SMS from them! But it quickly turned to dismay when I read that the installation date has been set for 30 July - *5 weeks* from when I applied. Remember that there is a physical line, etc - all they have to do is plug it in at the exchange (although for some reason they still need access to my premises, requiring a day off work). This is so ridiculous - how do they expect to get new customers if that's the fastest they can get it done? It's insane. Oh, and did I mention that for this privilege of waiting 5 weeks for installation of nothing much, I have to pay them R432?

Telkom phoned me up about 4 weeks later, and left voicemail saying that they'd be installing on Sunday! Which was pretty cool, except that they didn't give a time. And trying to phone 10219 was useless - it just rang and then cut off. Phoning the telkom shop was useless, because it said that their voice mailbox was full (this was while supposed working hours). Eventually, I got through to someone who put a note on their computer system that they should only come in the afternoon, and that they should phone first. Sunday, just after lunchtime, I got a call saying that they were on their way. And about an hour later, I had a working phone line. So that wasn't too bad. It still took far too long, I think - they really need to start processing these installations more quickly. But at least it was done relatively painlessly (in retrospect, at least).

I then applied through WebAfrica for a line and usage package, and after two days they told me that Telkom told them that my exchange isn't enabled. Which was odd, since it's a fairly major exchange. So against my will, I applied through Telkom, and the install's gone through just fine. Ether Telkom's being extremely anti-competitive, or WebAfrica caught them at a bad moment and might have got a better answer if they'd tried again. Either way, pretty shoddy of Telkom (not that we expect any better!)

My adsl was apparently activated after just one day, but it took them a week to let me know (and, more importantly, to put a comment in the 'comments' section on their system to say that it was activated and that I could fetch the modem). Then I had a problem whereby the verification step of the self-install had failed, but didn't give an error message. That was sorted relatively easily, by phoning them on 0800 375 375 and asking them to reset the 'verified' status to nothing (and they even work 24 hours a day, which is impressive!). After that, it worked beautifully - and it's much faster than I expected! (Which is great, seeing as my Vodacom connection has been terrible lately - but that's another issue).

Thanks to all the mybroadband guys for help and advice :-)

Tiscali

I'm very pissed off with Tiscali - I've been trying to get a refund from them since I cancelled my account more than 3 months ago. It's only a small amount, but dammit, it's my money and not theirs, and I want it back! (At the very least, I don't want them to have it - I'd rather they send it to a charity than just give up and let them have it). Here's a summary of what happened - I'll try to keep it short, but there was a lot of bouncing backwards and forwards so it'll be a long post.

At least in this exchange I mostly manage to avoid the script-people. But because each time you reply it's picked up by a different person, you lost a lot of continuity. Also, there's no incentive for them to solve the problem - they know that when you reply it'll be someone else's issue, so why put any effort into trying to sort it out?

Here goes. In February, I phoned Tiscali to cancel my account as of 15 March, told them I was moving overseas, and gave them my non-UK forwarding address. At no time was this a problem, nor did they mention any potential limitations on refunds.

At the end of March they took a full month's fee from my bank account, and I emailed them to query this, since it should only have been a pro-rata amount. I struggled to find the billing email address, and got stuck in a loop with the script people who said I have to phone the billing department. Eventually I got the email address, but by then I had found info on the web which suggested that they take a full month then give you a refund at the end of the next month.

By 11 May, I hadn't received a refund so I emailed them. Person One replied saying that I am due a refund, and they would post me a cheque. I immediately replied asking them to rather refund directly to my bank account since it's very expensive to deposit foreign currency cheques in SA. Person Two responded saying they can only refund by cheque, or I can email them my credit card details and they would refund to that. Admittedly I misread his reply slightly (mentally added in a 'not' where there shouldn't have been one) and replied asking them to refund to my bank account. Person Three replied saying that I could phone them to have the refund sent to my credit card, since they couldn't accept credit card details via email (contradicting Person Two). I replied explaining why I can't phone and can't accept a cheque (since the forex fees would be too high), and asked if there is no way it could be refunded to my bank account. Person Four then replied asking me to phone them so they can refund back to my credit card. I replied, again saying that I cannot phone since international calls are extremely expensive, and asked if the cheque could be sent to someone else, made out to some else, or sent directly to my bank.

On 12 May, Person Five replied asking me to write to their head office, and saying that the cheque could only be made out to me. I also received a reply from Person Six, saying that they can make the cheque out to anyone I request. She suggested that I write to their head office to request the cheque to be sent directly to my bank. I replied saying that if I have to post something to the UK regardless, they might as well send the cheque to me here, and I could decide how to proceed from there. I again gave them my non-UK address.

On 16 May, I emailed them request a confirmation that the cheque was being processed. By 21 May, I had received no reply so I emailed again, again giving them my non-UK address.

On 22 May, Person Seven said she would put through an escalation to the billing department, but it could take 28 days to be processed.

By 25 June, I still had not received a cheque. I emailed them again, asking them to look into whether the cheque had been processed, and what address it had been sent to. On 26 June, Person Eight replied saying that the cheque was sent to my UK address on 23 May, and that a note had been attached to my account saying that it should be sent to SA instead. She said that if I cannot get hold of the cheque sent to the UK, they would cancel it and send a replacement to my SA address. I replied asking them to do so, giving them my SA address again (and complaining about how ridiculous the whole situation was). I received a reply from Person Six, asking if I have received the cheque since my last email, and if not, to advise them of the address I want the cheque sent to. I replied with a copy of my previous reply.

I then received a reply from Person Nine, saying that they cannot send cheques overseas, and I must confirm if I have a family member in the UK who they can send a cheque to who can then forward it on to me. At this point I nearly freaked out, and replied saying that this was not acceptable, that I do not have any family members in the UK, that no other company had had a problem refunding either to my bank account or sending a cheque to SA, and I did not not understand why it could not be done, especially since no-one had previously said it would it be a problem. I asked her to sort it out ASAP or escalate the issue to someone who could sort it out.

I have had no reply today. I don't think I can take another reply from them - we're just going backwards. I've going to email this summary to them, asking them to escalate to the Customer Service Manager or General Manager as per their Code of Practice, but I just know it'll end up having no effect - I'll just keep floating around the support pool. I'd take them up on their offer of mailing the cheque direct to my bank, but since I have to do it in writing they'll probably lose or ignore my letter, or send it to the wrong bank, or not include my account details, or wait another month and then tell me they can't do it.

Edit (28/06/2007): I've removed the names from the story, since one of the Tiscali customer service reps was uncomfortable with it (see the 3rd comment below).

I've since asked them just to send the cheque direct to my bank - Person Six replied saying that they will do so, and that they apologise for the problems and that they take on board all comments with a view to improving their services. I wonder if that includes laughing at their customers? (See the 1st comment below).

It's become two - no, three - issues: getting my money; getting contradictory answers; attitude towards customers. But I just want to get the money I'm owed. The customer service reps clearly don't care, and I can't force them to care. The head of customer service should care, and the general manager should care, but I've been fighting with them for over three months and I'm too tired.

Stay Away From Acapulco Spur

I have had a really crappy day. So I'm in rant mode, not just about things that happened today (not all which I can blog about), but going back to Saturday. So there'll be more ranting posts over the next few days - I apologise in advance, but sometimes you can't help but vent. I'll follow up with a fun cartoon when I'm done, to make up for it!

For this post: Acapulco Spur in Bergvliet. Apparently they are busy renovating, but are too scared of losing business to close the Spur.

We were shown to a table which was sitting on a plain concrete floor, and had to walk past building materials to get to it. There were no lights in this section, and we had only one candle for a fairly large table. We had to take turns using the candle to try to read the menus! The table and seats were filthy with building dust, and when we asked for the tables and seats to be cleaned the waiter brought two wet wipes to wipe the table (with which he wiped half the table, only). We then started wondering how clean the mats, cutlery, salads, etc were!

The menus themselves are impossible to read in good light, never mind in the light of a single candle. We have complained about them repeatedly in previous months, and nothing has been done. The printing has rubbed off to the point where the menus cannot be read - the prices are 'blob blob. blob blob', which is simply unacceptable. On some menus, if you know what you want, you can find the item and attempt to read the price; but if you want to browse the menu to see what's available, well, you're out of luck because large sections are simply blank.

At this point we got up and left. I didn't want to spoil what could have been a nice evening out by eating there, and I didn't feel I could condone their staying open in such a mess. And I certainly didn't want to pay good money for a shoddy experience. And with only one candle, I doubt we would have been able to see what we were eating anyway.

I emailed Spur about this, via their website. They passed the query on to the manager, who basically said that they've been operating for 35 years; they're very forward thinking; and they have a notice up aplogising for inconvience during the renovations. In other words, he basically said "tough, we don't care". Which makes me even less inclined to go back there. As I replied to him - inconvenience is sections being closed off, or having a longer waiting time. Dirt is not an inconvenience, it's a health hazard. The only good thing he had to say is that their new menus are being delivered on Thursday - sorry, too little, too late, and too little customer care.

Update: I've since been contacted by someone higher up, and they apologised profusely for the service and the reply. I've also spoken to the manager, who apologised for the renovations and explained how they're having a hard time but are almost done, and he's offered to make reparations. So while I think they were wrong, it happened and they're doing their best to make it right, which I appreciate.

Cape Town vs London

It's taken a while, but as promised, here are the photos to show why I prefer working in Cape Town to working in London :-) These were all taken from around my office in London:




And Cape Town:





I'm not going to get into the relative advantages and merits of each place - I'd have a list that goes on forever! I do miss London now that I'm in Cape Town; but I missed Cape Town when I was in London. The difference is that I miss London less from Cape Town than I missed Cape Town from London, if you know what I mean. What it comes down to is that Cape Town is home, and while London is great, it's not home for me. Although there are two things I particularly miss at the moment - central heating, and Green & Black's Hot Chocolate! If it didn't come in a great big heavy glass bottle, I'd consider requesting some via post for my birthday next month ;)

And while I'm posting photos, here are some totally gratuitous photos of my car (a Kia Picanto, which I'm very happy with):

Good Service, Bad Service

I haven't been blogging much lately - but that's mostly because I tend to blog about things that either really bug me or make me happy. Which would be fine, but there tend to be more bugging things than good things, and I don't want to be complaining all the time :-)

Especially when it's things that only affect me in a 'no man is an island' kind of way. Copyright issues, Telkom, eNatis, that kind of thing. But there are a few things that have been irritated me on a personal level, and so I might as well vent and get it out of my system.

Firstly - what is the use of estate agents that only work during work hours? I'm looking at townhouses to rent, but the agent with all the good properties won't show them after 5pm or over the weekend. Which is pathetic - most people work during the day, all day, every day.

Secondly - and I've mentioned this one before - companies (in the UK) that will take money from your bank account, but will only refund by cheque. I'm trying to negotiate with Tiscali at the moment, but I suspect it will, again, end up being a refund cheque. It may work in the UK; it doesn't work if you've left the country; and it specifically doesn't work if you now live in South Africa. And as an aside - British Gas still haven't replied to any of my queries or complaints, and the Energy Ombudsman won't even consider stepping until 3 months has gone past with no reply. Again, pathetic.

And my last complaint for the day - Satrix. This is an ETF/index tracker investment fund in SA, and the nice thing is that you can invest directly and don't have to go via a broker (thus avoiding brokerage fees). I'm sure the investment side is great; they've been posting really good returns. But the admin side is, again, pathetic. Really unprofessional and disorganised. They lost my application form; they lost my internet access application form. They have different fax numbers on the form and on their website. Their website looks like it was designed by some who thought they were being really clever, but were just being an idiot by being totally non-standard. Queries get answered by multiple people. Queries get answered incorrectly (I was told my internet account had been activated, and it took 3 or 4 days of errors to be told it hadn't been activated). A letter I received in the post from them had a phone number written on the back, scribbled out. The grammar used by the customer service agents is barely primary school level: "I have tried to allocate it on our systems but was not successful. it seems that your forms had been missed place and no submitted through." Notice the allocate instead of locate, missed place instead of misplaced, and no submitted instead of not submitted. And "We apologies for the inconvenience." So I just hope their money management is better than their customer management!

On the good side, and just to prove that I don't only complain, I bought a new car a few weeks ago and I was very impressed. It's a Kia Picanto, in Diamond Blue (I'll post a picture sometime), and the whole experience was remarkably simple. I thought it might be a problem to get the model I wanted in the colour I wanted, but luckily one was just arriving by ship when I started talking to the dealer. The salesman (from Kia Cape Town - the other branches aren't as good) was pleasant, friendly, knew what he was talking about, and wasn't at all pushy. They delivered the car to my house, and every now and then phone up to see if everything's going okay (which it is - the only problem is the licencing, and that's the government's problem, not theirs). Really, they were brilliant and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to anyone who wants to buy a Kia. The car itself is also great, although I haven't driven for a year, and not much before that, so I need to practice a bit before I'm comfortable driving to work :-)

Fees, fees, fees

Excuse the rant today, but I've just been looking at bank fees and medical aid costs, and it's ****ing ridiculous.

My bank used to give cheque books free; now I have to pay R17.50. I also have to pay a 'monthly management fee' of R17.50 - just for the privilege of letting them keep my money. If you want to query a debit order after 40 days (which is quite possible, since you only get a statement every 30 days), you have to pay them R125 for the privilege of saying that someone took money out of your account when they shouldn't have! Withdrawals, or using your debit card at a shop, costs R3.10 + 0.6% of the amount of cash you're using, up to a maximum of R14. Same goes for debit orders, too. That's just insane, and I get so angry but there's nothing we can do. And banks overseas prove that it is possible for banks to make money without all these fees - my banking in the UK was 100% free: no cash withdrawal fees, no debit order fees, no debit card fees, no monthly fees, no annual card fees. So why do we just sit here and get ripped off?!

Medical Aids are the next issue. Gone are the days when medical aids actually acted as medical aids, in that they would pay your doctor's bills, and everyone paid into a fund which paid for everyone's claims. It's moved more to a model where you paid a monthly amount for potential hospital cover (which hopefully you'll never use), and the day to day expenses (dentists, doctors) you pay for yourself. But the amount that you're having to pay for this hospital insurance (because that's what it is, even if they don't call it that is insanely expensive and an absolute rip-off. The plan I used to be on before I left for the UK is now R745 per month - and I get absolutely *nothing* from that, unless I'm unlucky enough to need hospitalization. Luckily my salary can cover that without a problem, but what about normal average income earners? And why should I have to pay such a huge amount every single month? Because medical aids now exist for the benefit of their shareholders, and not their members. Same goes for the banks.

And to add insult to injury, try getting details of bank fees from the bank site; or get the details (limits and sublimits) for the medical aid options. Not so easy. Lots of blurb, but very little detail. Take my money if you have to, but don't try to distract me with blurb! If I have to pay the money, I damn well want to know what I'm paying, what I'm paying it for, and what I'm getting for it.

Allfreight: A Review

Here's a quick review of Allfreight International (allfreight.co.uk).

In summary, they're okay as far as they go, but that's not very far. Their best point is that they're cheap; far cheaper than anyone else that I looked at. The two worst points are that their website is mostly incorrect; and that they don't manage the process past the point that they put it on the ship.

Starting at the beginning: they were pretty helpful with inquiries that I had, and their website was very informative. You can order box delivery and collection online, which is great.

Their website is often incorrect, though. The site says you can pay via bank transfer, but in reality you don't have that option (neither for the deposit for the boxes nor for the actual shipping).

The site says that you can check on the site the morning of the box delivery/collection to see whether it's morning or afternoon; in reality, they send you an sms the day before to remind you, and you have to phone them in the morning to find out which 4 hour slot your delivery/collection will be in. On the good side, they do seem to be fairly accurate, and when they're delayed they do let you know.

The boxes were delivered fine, and you get bubblewrap with them; you're supposed to get packing tape as well, but somehow I didn't get any.

Boxes are only collected from the ground floor; again, the website says that the driver will phone you about 20 minutes before he arrives so that you have time to take boxes down; in reality, I had about 1 minute warning. Luckily I had space in the entry hall and had taken the boxes down early.

The website was never updated with the correct invoice details, however. They say you can track your shipment online, but you can't. I received an email saying that my boxes had been shipped, and only a week or so later was the website updated to reflect this. The email gave me the vessel details, and the details of the local agent - although the website said that they are their own agents in SA. The email said the vessel sailed on the 23rd and was due on the 9th; and that the local agent would contact me one week prior to the vessel's arrival. This was the last I heard from Allfreight. (Incidentally, the same email was sen to all Allfreight customers who had boxes on that ship, and all the email addresses were visible to all recipients - which is very bad business practice).

Nobody contacted me. After the 9th, when the ship was due, I mailed Allfreight to ask what to do. They just sent me the local agent's phone number; they didn't seem to care that I hadn't heard from the agent. I asked for an email address or a Cape Town number (rather than a Joburg number); they replied saying that they don't have an email address, and that the number they sent was a Cape Town number (which it clearly wasn't: +27 11 is not Cape Town).

So I did some investigation, and found that that vessel only arrived in Cape Town on the 12th. Eventually I managed to find a local number for the local agents, and gave them a call. Unbelievably, my boxes were in a container that contained mostly boxes headed for Joburg, and so even though the ship called at Cape Town, my boxes are going to sail on to Port Elizabeth, clear customs there, then be sent by road up to Joburg. They will then be sent from Joburg back down to Cape Town - and the entire process will take another 2 weeks! But no-one from Allfreight or the local agents bothered to tell me this - even though Allfreight claim that they manage the process from the time you order boxes till the time they arrive at your door. And how I'm supposed to sign customs forms when my boxes are in PE rather than Cape Town, I don't know - I guess they'll want to fax them to me and have me sign and then fax them back, which is awkward anyway but more so since I don't have a fax machine (and I'm sure most people don't).

So my boxes will take about 3 weeks more than Allfreight indicated, and Allfreight are not interested in finding out any information about my shipment.

I just hope my boxes arrive in good condition, and without too much more delay. But I do get annoyed when the website promises things that the company just doesn't deliver on (although they do get the basics done, to be fair). And while they're cheap, I do still expect decent customer service; especially when they say that they don't consider themselves to be cheap, they just consider everyone else as expensive - that certainly shows that they don't think of themselves as a budget solution which doesn't require decent customer service.

Refund by cheque

I don't get it. Most companies in the UK are globally aware, and when I contacted them to say I was closing my account and leaving the country, not one of them had a problem changing my address to a non-UK one.

Most companies did a refund of any credit owing to me by refunding directly to my bank account. This is what I expect - I pay via a bank transfer or direct debit; I expect a refund the same way.

But Merton Council, and BT, just have to be difficult. They won't refund directly. Merton wanted to send a refund cheque, to my OLD address, within 28 DAYS after I left! How does that make sense?! BT, at least, are posting the cheque to my new SA address; but that doesn't help. To deposit a foreign cheque here will cost me more than the cheque is worth!

I've arranged with a friend that he'll accept and deposit the Merton cheque for me; I guess if I can stop BT from sending the cheque here in time, and I can get them to send it to him instead, he can deposit that one for me too. But if I can't stop them, they'll have wasted postage sending it here, and I'll then have to post it back there to him. What a monumental waste of time.

Really, get with the 21st century. If I pay by cheque, refund by cheque. But if I pay electronically, refund electronically - especially if I'm in a different country, for pete's sake!

Update: So I thought it was easy to cancel all my UK accounts when I left, but it turns out I was mistaken. Apart from the issues above, British Gas thinks my electricity account is still active, and is still taking payments from my bank account (even though it was cancelled in the same call as my gas account, and that was cancelled) - they now want me to phone them to cancel my account, which I refuse to do since it will cost an absolute fortune from here in SA. They have a facility to cancel your account online, but firstly they want 3 years worth of UK addresses (why!? and I only have one year's worth), and secondly they won't accept non-UK addresses as the new address. So I can't use it.

Tiscali is still taking money from my bank account, even though my account has been cancelled - in fact, they sent me an email saying that I can view my final bill online, but then said that I can't login since my account's been cancelled.

British Gas has made a huge mistake with my gas bill, since their previous estimate of my usage was about 5 times higher than my normal (and actual) usage, and they then ignored my final reading and based my final bill on an (even higher) estimate! And they've ignored my last two emails asking them to look into it.

So it looks like the UK is just as screwed up as SA :(

Update: It's about a week since my last update, and I continue to be amazed by the sheer incompetence of British companies.

BT, after all that, sent the cheque to my SA address.

Tiscali still hasn't replied to me.

Merton Council tax department has emailed me to ask if I want the cheque sent to the address on the refund form, or my bank. This is over a month since I sent the form in, and I thought it had been processed and the cheque posted already!

British Gas is still ignoring my query about the incorrect charges on my gas bill.

British Gas is ignoring my email about cancelling my account. I tried to cancel online, but firstly, they want 3 years worth of valid UK addresses. If I fudge that, they want my new address to be a valid UK address. If I get around that, it doesn't accept my 12 digit account number - it wants a 10 digit number. If I arbitrarily leave out 2 numbers, it asks me to acknowledge that I'm applying for a new account (when what I'm trying to do is cancel an old account). Absolutlely pathetic, and as I say they're just ignoring me now via email.

This is what I find most frustrating with UK companies - if they think you're being too persistent, or too annoying, or too awkward, they just ignore you.

And it's so annoying because I tried so hard to do everything right. I knew it would be difficult to sort things out from SA, so I cancelled everything and sorted everything out before I left. You don't expect to have to cancel your electricity account, and then phone back to check that it was cancelled. You expect that when you cancel your telephone account, they'll tell you there and then if they can only process refunds by cheque. You don't expect to get home and then have endless hassles! The only company that I haven't had a problem with is TMobile (yet); and my tax refund came through fast and without a problem, which was amazing. But everything else just sucks!


Update: Hmm, looks like I haven't updated for a while. Pretty much everyone got sorted, except Tiscali and British Gas for gas.

After complaining to EnergyWatch, and only a couple of days short of the Energy Ombudsman deadline, British Gas deposited a refund into my account. No letter or email from them, just money in my account. But who cares, at least I got my money!

Now I'm fighting with Tiscali. Actually, I'm so angry with them I can't put it into words. Expect a post about it tomorrow or the next day - I'll link to it from here.

War On Errorism

I was at the Science Museum shop the other day (yes, the shop is more fun than the museum itself), and as part of the merch for their Spy exhibit they have a pin/badge/button saying 'Self Destruct'.

Luckily this is in London, not Boston - otherwise wearing one could get you blown up. As Bruce Schneier put it: 'Boston PD - Putting the "error" in "terror".'

You can't cross the same river twice

I enjoyed going to Oxford the other day; it was nice being in an academic town again. It's odd, but there really is a certain studenty feel to the place. It made me miss wandering around the UCT campus; it made me miss being at varsity, doing the whole academic thing. Going to lectures, studying - just learning new things (although I don't miss tests and tutorials and exams).

And then I started thinking about other things I miss; I used to do First Aid for the rugby team at school, and each Saturday I'd wake up early, collect a pile of ice from the freezer, and go down to the rugby field to watch the game. We'd have to be there rain or shine, and somehow it was always fun.

I miss the holidays in Robertson we used to have when I was a kid. We'd stay in a chalet, and go swimming and ride the supertube, and go into Barrydale to do shopping. It was fun.

I miss doing archery - I only did two lessons, and the first time I got horribly sunburned, and the next time I managed to bruise my arm really, really badly, but I enjoyed it anyway.

I miss working at Axcess - we were working on interesting stuff, with cool people, and it was really great.

The thing is, that I miss UCT, but I wouldn't want to go back and do another degree now. I wouldn't want to wake up early and go to rugby. Robertson would be unbearably boring. (On the other hand, I would go back to Axcess in a heartbeat, if we got all the same people together again). And I know I'm not the first person to think this, but the time, place, and activity are all tied up together, and you can go back to the place, or do the same activity, but you can't go back to the time.

And I have to keep that in mind, with moving back to SA - I'm not going back in time; I'm not going back to Axcess, I'm starting something new, just in an old place. Doesn't mean it won't be good, but it won't be the same as before :-)

There are some things that I'm not looking forward to:
- Lack of communications infrastructure. Ridiculously expensive phone calls, mobile contracts, and don't even mention broadband (or what passes for broadband there; I think that the ADSL is too slow to qualify as broadband, and GPRS certainly isn't broadband).

- Bank fees. Paying for every transaction, even getting a balance from an ATM, is going to take some getting used to again. Not being able to use a debit card will be the worst; not that they don't have debit cards, but you get charged each time you use it - the same charge as drawing money from an ATM. Mostly I used to use my credit card as a debit card, but you can't really use a credit card for small purchases like you can with a debit card. And while I'm on it, why are charges always a percentage of the transaction amount? It's an electronic transaction; whether it's for R1 or R10000, it doesn't take them any more effort to process it. So why should you pay more?

- Politics. I know everywhere has political problems, but it just seems so much worse there. It's partly the race thing; for example, the ANC is going around renaming roads and places to honour ANC heroes. I think that most people agree, if reluctantly, that some current place names may be offensive; but then rename things to be neutral, rather than ANC-centric. What if, say, the IFP comes into power, and then renames everything after IFP heroes? And then the DA, and they rename everything, and then the ANC, and they rename everything again... I understand renaming the airport from DF Malan to Cape Town International, but now they want to rename it again to... something or other, after some ANC guy. It's just silly. And our politicians seem to all be pushing their own agenda; they're generally incompetent or corrupt (although there are some exceptions, like Trevor Manuel).

But the thing is, while those things are important, they don't really affect your day to day life :-) You get used to the expensive communications; you learn to optimize your banking transactions and stop thinking about it; and if you don't read the news, you can avoid most of the politics ;-) And there's the mountain, sea, sun, kirstenbosch, familiarity, and family. People to laze around with over the weekend, in the sun, with the blue sky and green grass... I'd put up with a lot for that!

Sightseeing

So I finished work on Monday; it was kinda sad to leave. The first job I had fell apart so quickly that I was just stunned; the second, it kinda fell apart and I resigned, but I really hated leaving. The next one, well, I was really glad to get out of there. This one I didn't hate, and I didn't love; I wouldn't have left, except that I wanted to go home. So I kinda had mixed feelings about leaving (for someone who doesn't like change, and who gets really attached to things and people and places, I really make life difficult for myself!).

I go home next month, and then the whole thing starts again - finding a flat, finding a job (and going through interviews again, aargh!). I want to get a car, and at least I'll have a bike again, yay! Hopefully I'll find a job I like, and make friends, and maybe, hopefully, even meet a guy ;) In the meantime, though, I'm catching up on some sightseeing; yesterday, I went off to Oxford and the Cotwolds.

I went on the London Walks trip, which is reasonable value. We went from Paddington to Oxford station, where there was a bus to take us to the Cotwolds. First stop was Minster Lovell, where we wandered around and saw the ruins of Minster Lovell Hall. Very pretty place, and it was cool to stand in a real ruined building - you see it on TV, but it's different being there in person. And to see the foundations of the outbuildings - it was a bit of a Time Team flashback :-)

At the village church there was a scene that I just had to take a photo of; file it in the dictionary as a definition for 'irony' (hmm, maybe I should have cropped and zoomed a bit; if you can't read it, the sign says 'Welcome'):

And this picture is exactly what I always imagined when I heard the word 'cottage':

We then went off to Burford, for lunch, and then on to Oxford. We did quite an interesting walking tour of Oxford, and even got to go inside New College, and saw the dining room (again, just like I always imagined!) and the chapel. All very cool, and I was really chuffed to be able to buy a real Oxford sweatshirt, from a real Oxford college store :-) I got to see the Ashmolean Museum, although unfortunately there wasn't time to go inside; same with the History of Science Museum, which sounded really cool.

I also particularly liked the gargoyles at New College:

Tomorrow I'm off to Bath; this time, I managed to get really cheap train tickets, so I'm going on my own rather than on a guided tour. I'll do a City Sightseeing bus tour round the city, and go to the Roman Baths and the Pump Room; hopefully it'll be interesting! Monday I'm off to Edinburgh for the day; I know it's insane going all that way for one day, but... well... for some reason I decided to do it, and it's too late to change my mind now :-) I'm really excited about that one; again, it's a bus tour round the city, and entrance into the castle. Woot!

Things That Bug Me

Some things really bug me. Really, really bug me, to the point that I feel like a frustrated little kid throwing a temper tantrum, because complaining just doesn't help and nobody cares.

Here's a cartoon chaser, though:


It's from xkcd, a brilliant comic I just discovered. Some of them are funny, some are cool, some are insightful. But this one made me burst out laughing, out loud, even though there was no-one else around :-)

So, things that bug me. Like Google deciding that I have to switch my blog to the new GoogleBlog system, associated with my google id. I don't want everything connected to the same id; maybe I want to keep my blog and my searches and my email and my usenet posts and my googletalk logins all separate. But Google just doesn't give you that option. And being signed into one automatically signs you into all the other services, even if you use them in a different window - so while I could theoretically use a different google username for each service,
it gets really difficult to do so. It frustrates me, and I know that they don't care, won't do anything about it, and I'm just going to have to change the way I want to do things.

Which, incidentally, is what bugs me about Microsoft - I have to change the way I want to do things, because it doesn't fit in with the way they do things. Even just on my own PC.

And here's something else - my dad's Epson printer stopped working yesterday. Without warning, it started blinking red and green lights. Eventually he managed to find out that this means that 'parts are worn and need a service'. It turns out, that after a certain number of pages, the printer decides it needs a service and refuses to print until it's been serviced. There's no way to override it (although I suspect flashing the bios might fix it; after all, there must be some way for the service tech to reset it, right? But there's no user way to override it). So to be able to continue printing - and remember, this happens without warning, halfway through a print job - you have to take it to Epson to have it serviced. And the service costs about 80% of the price of a new printer. And there's nothing you can do!! And no-one at Epson cares! And it certainly isn't on the packaging; you don't know this when you buy the printer. This really should be illegal; it's planned obsolesence. Your printer essentially expires, with no warning, and there's nothing you can do. I know we always joke about things breaking the day after the warranty expires; this is like that, except it's not a joke.

And broadband in South Africa bugs me unbelievably much; but I'm not even going to get started on that one. All I'm going to say is that it's ridiculous and pathetic; both in terms of monthly costs, installation costs, speed, stability, and customer service.

Well, enough complaining for now. Enjoy the weekend :-)

This one's pretty good, too:


Oh, and here are some more things that bug me: companies who have email addresses, but never reply to their email, or who think that just because their ToS says they'll respond in 14 days, that really is a reasonable amount of time to have to wait for a reply, or who do reply but with an automated or monkey-driven scripted reply, based on keywords in your email, that just regurgitates the info on their website and doesn't answer your question at all (tiscali's particularly bad with this).

And websites who check your browser version, and if it isn't one they recognise, advise you to upgrade to the latest version of IE. Firstly, I'm not going to change my system for the dubious privilege of viewing their website; secondly, while I don't expect everyone to design their sites for access by mobiles, at least acknowledge the possibility that your visitor is using a perfectly up-to-date version of, say, PocketIE. Or that they might be using a system which they can't upgrade - a mobile, or a *nix system on which IE wouldn't install, even if someone, bizarrely, actually wanted it to.

I'm sure i'll be back with more. But for now, goodnight :-)

Aaaaargh! And Blogger, who's site works on a mobile, in that you can log in, choose a blog, view your posts, edit a post - but then doesn't let you click submit. Aaaaarrrggghhh!

Snow!

Wow! It's snowing!

I can't believe it - I woke up ths morning, looked out the window and everything was covered in snow. It looks so pretty, covering the trees and roofs and cars! It really looks like someone sieved icing sugar all over everything. And it's so funny to see cars driving down the road covered in snow, with just the windows clear :)

It almost makes up for it being so cold the past few days. I thought it was a bit warmer today, but maybe I just didn't notice, being too amazed at the snow - after standing at the station waiting 20 minutes for a train, i'm pretty damn cold. Not as cold as in Lapland, but still cold.

And this is proper snow - 1 or 2 centimetres deep, and soft and fluffy. This is the stuff you can make snowballs out of, not like the icy stuff in Lapland.

And now that I've reported in, i'm going to sit back and watch the snowy landscape out the train window until I get to work :)

Update: finally got around to putting up a couple of pictures:

Moving Back Home

So, I've decided to move back home. London's great, but it's not home, and I'm getting tired of that. I've been here almost a year, and I've gotten a lot more used to it, and learned my way around, but it's tough living in a place that just isn't quite... normal, what you're used to.

And it's tough being away from family - not only because I miss them, but because they're there and I'm here, I don't have a support circle here. Sure, I phone them a lot, but it's not the same; this really hit me when I got sick over New Year. Having no-one around to make me lunch, or go stock up on medicine, or just be around to help me feel better really sucked. I've proved (if only to myself) that I can cope on my own, I can be independent, I can handle it - but while I can do it all on my own, I'd just rather not any more :-)

And I miss biltong, and the sea, and the mountains, and the sunny weather :-) I know it won't be all sun and sand - it's not like when I went back on holiday, and it's not as though I'm going back in time to when I worked at ATC. It'll be a new life (again), and I'll have to go to interviews (aargh!) to find a job, and find a flat and organise a phone line and internet access and change all my addresses and basically re-do all the stuff I did when I moved over here, but in reverse. But it'll be worth it, because I'll be home.

It will be tough leaving London. Each place has it's own good points and bad points, as I've mentioned before, and I could add a million more things to that list. In the end, it comes down to where your heart is, and mine's in Cape Town. It might be different if I had tons of friends here - it wouldn't stop me missing familiar things, or my family, but it would help to have some support. And it's always more fun doing things if you have people to do them with - to point out all the cool sites, that kind of thing. But then again, having a bunch of friends might just have made it more difficult to leave.

There's a lot that I thought I would do that I haven't done, like travelling around Europe. But when you're working full time, weekends become about cleaning the house, and resting up for the next week of work, and shopping, and you just don't have the time or energy to go be a tourist. But I have a week or so of leave left, which I'll take at the end of February - and while I don't really feel like travelling around Europe, I do plan to do walking tours of Oxford and the Cotswolds, a day trip to Edinburgh (I know, it's pretty far to travel for a couple of hours! But there's a tour package for it which includes a sight-seeing bus trip and entry to Edinburgh castle, which should cover all the bits that I want to see), and a trip to Bath. My mom's coming over, since she hasn't been to visit me yet and won't get a chance now that I'm moving home, and we're going to spend two weeks packing up (aargh, gotta decide what to sell, what to ship home, and what to get rid of, and how to get rid of it), and doing touristy stuff that I haven't done yet, like Madame Toussauds and going out to Pooh Country. So all that should be fun.

And then, it'll finally be time to go home :-)

Magic Kingdom in the Sky

This is brilliant (although possibly not for the easily offended, religion-wise). It's "Magic Kingdom In the Sky", by an a capella group called DaVinci's Notebook. It's absolutely hilarious, and I recommend listening to it immediately!

All my life I have been searching for that fabled promised land,
With my sisters and my brothers we shall walk there hand-in-hand.
Through the trials and tribulations and the devils cruel temtations.
I know that we'll all get there one day!

After years and years of wandering, oh that kingdom we shall find
and the doors might not be open but we'll gather in the line.
And our hearts will swell with pride the day those gates swing open wide and take a walk down Main Street USA!

Ban Reclining Seats, Please!

I've mostly recovered from the tonsillitis and subsequent cold, although I'm still a bit sniffly. And I know that I promised a post on my Lapland Christmas when I got better, and it is still coming! But the other day I read a thread on banning reclining seats on planes, and then today I read this blog post which mentions the same thing. Now this is something I feel really strongly about - I hate it when the person in front of me reclines their seat. So this is the comment I posted on the blog:

the Knee Defender -- a mischievous little gadget that allows you to be a tad more comfortable at the expense of making your fellow traveler a tad less comfortable

Nope, that's the other way round: reclining makes you a tad more comfortable at the expense of your fellow traveller's much greater discomfort.

Try spending a 12 hour flight with your knees jammed up against the back of the seat in front of you, with no room to stretch or move your legs even just a tiny big.

Try reading anything larger than a small paperback - there just isn't room between my body and the seatback to hold it at a reasonable angle!

Try viewing the seatback LCD screen, with the seatback reclined - the viewing angle means that half the screen isn't visible.

Try eating your meal with your elbows bent out to the sides because your traytable is right up close - except that you have someone sitting on at least one side, so you have to try to eat one-handed.

Try getting in and out of your seat when the seat in front of you is reclined - you have to climb over the armrest to do it.

I don't mind as much if the person's actually trying to sleep, but on most of the flights I've been on lately they're just watching the movie or chatting to the person next to them, while I'm getting more and more cramped and frustrated and claustrophobic.

I really wish they would ban reclining seats!