We are all quick to complain when we get bad service so it is only fair to speak up when you have great service.
When Brooke went off to University in January the list of kit she needed was long, very long. Off she went to Buxton with everything on the list and most of it has been used now except her day sac, a 40 litre rucksack had only been used a few times for just a few hours each time. So the trip to Morroco was the first real test. Unfortunatley it failed, the drawstring collar came away from the main bag. Having looked at it the collar was only just inside the sewing line. It happens.
So we have a failed rucksack, 7 months old and no receipt. I know this counts as 'unfit for purpose' and technically the supplier or shop is liable but it can be a difficult thing to prove. Still off I went to Mountain Warehouse in Antrim, who also sell a nice line in 'wick tees', and showed the rucksack to the staff. No problem what so ever, no issue that I had no receipt, no 'did you misuse it', no 'it was too long ago', simply 'we are very sorry' and an instant replacement.
Good service, well done and thank you.
Monday, 21 July 2008
Sunday, 20 July 2008
Where are my wellies
So she came back from Morocco on Monday with a bag of dirty clothes and the smelliest feet I have ever come across! But hot water sorted out both.
She has a brilliant sense of achievement and wants to go again; she didn’t find the mountain too difficult but explained that if you climb too quickly you end up with altitude problems.
It is great to have her home, but then I had to go to London. She did ring me on Wednesday but only to ask when I was home, ah she misses me, no; she wanted to know when she had to tidy up by… Not sure why she bothered as when I got home Thursday evening the downstairs was well on its way to matching the upstairs, typical teenage tidiness. Still you have to love them.
She was back at work this week in the leisure centre, not very busy this week as they were filming The Cherrybomb there with Jimmy Nesbitt and Rupert Grint , Ron Weasley from Harry Potter. It actually turned her off any idea of a career in the movies as she found it incredibly boring going over and over the same scene all day.
Today was the start of the next trip she is going horse riding with the Royal Artillery, everything should have been fine we checked on all the kit when we were getting ready for the Morocco trip, so no last minute panics, of course not, ‘where are my wellies’ she shouts 10 minutes before she leaves. No joy, so she flew to Southampton and had to go to the shops before she caught the train. Oh the joys of parenthood…
She has a brilliant sense of achievement and wants to go again; she didn’t find the mountain too difficult but explained that if you climb too quickly you end up with altitude problems.
It is great to have her home, but then I had to go to London. She did ring me on Wednesday but only to ask when I was home, ah she misses me, no; she wanted to know when she had to tidy up by… Not sure why she bothered as when I got home Thursday evening the downstairs was well on its way to matching the upstairs, typical teenage tidiness. Still you have to love them.
She was back at work this week in the leisure centre, not very busy this week as they were filming The Cherrybomb there with Jimmy Nesbitt and Rupert Grint , Ron Weasley from Harry Potter. It actually turned her off any idea of a career in the movies as she found it incredibly boring going over and over the same scene all day.
Today was the start of the next trip she is going horse riding with the Royal Artillery, everything should have been fine we checked on all the kit when we were getting ready for the Morocco trip, so no last minute panics, of course not, ‘where are my wellies’ she shouts 10 minutes before she leaves. No joy, so she flew to Southampton and had to go to the shops before she caught the train. Oh the joys of parenthood…
Sunday, 13 July 2008
Teenagers!
Teenagers are put on this earth to bring parents a range of totally unexpected challenges…
My 19 year old daughter is also a great friend, however opening the door to her bedroom does put risk on the relationship – how can you live like that?
Anyway, she finished university for the summer on 3rd May and then set out to have a brilliant summer.
• Trip to London to get her Gold Duke of Edinburgh award at St James Palace
• Accompany me to the OUGF conference sailing between Helsinki and Stockholm
• Renew her Lifesaving qualifications
• Summer Break in Newquay – when students all go to Cornwall and everyone living in Cornwall goes away!
• Trip to South Africa (second trip of a lifetime in 8 months)
• Mountain Climbing in the Atlas Mountains – Morocco
• Horse Riding in Wiltshire with the Royal Artillery
• Inter-rail around Eastern Europe
Between each trip she comes home for a few days to work as a lifeguard at our local swimming pool to top up the bank account.
Had I have known university was this much fun I may have stayed at school and gone myself.
I have to say she is very good with her money, I have donated airmiles but everything else she has funded, and I thought students were meant to be constantly poor.
Anyway back to the challenge, she is currently in Morocco having successfully achieved her mountain climb, and is home tomorrow, but before she went there was the kit list to pack. It included a tent and down jacket which needed to be good quality and fit for purpose not just what is on offer in the local store suitable just for music festivals. So out we went for the day and eventually tracked down specialist shops in Belfast, spent a fortune and came home. Job done? Not quite…
Day before she goes I am helping her to pack and the packing list says two ‘wick tees’, “what is a wick tee?” I ask, (I have no idea about mountain climbing or the equipment needed – except it all seems to be expensive). Brooke says she doesn’t know either so it can’t be important so she will manage without!
A bit like a DBA not understanding Oracle instructions about a patch at install and just ignoring it (hang on I have met some like that).
So mum googles ‘wick tees’discovers that they are very important t shirts that are to keep you dry and draw out sweat from the body. So quick rush out to another shop – did I mention we live half an hour each way from a town with shops!
It probably doesn’t sound too bad to you does it? But on the way to South Africa she rang me in a panic and ended up having to buy a new memory card for her camera as she couldn’t find the cable to download the last set of photos. Probably somewhere in that bedroom!
Home tomorrow, horse riding the following week – now what will the challenge be then?
Still you have to love them and I am so proud of her.
My 19 year old daughter is also a great friend, however opening the door to her bedroom does put risk on the relationship – how can you live like that?
Anyway, she finished university for the summer on 3rd May and then set out to have a brilliant summer.
• Accompany me to the OUGF conference sailing between Helsinki and Stockholm
• Renew her Lifesaving qualifications
• Summer Break in Newquay – when students all go to Cornwall and everyone living in Cornwall goes away!
• Trip to South Africa (second trip of a lifetime in 8 months)
• Mountain Climbing in the Atlas Mountains – Morocco
• Horse Riding in Wiltshire with the Royal Artillery
• Inter-rail around Eastern Europe
Between each trip she comes home for a few days to work as a lifeguard at our local swimming pool to top up the bank account.
Had I have known university was this much fun I may have stayed at school and gone myself.
I have to say she is very good with her money, I have donated airmiles but everything else she has funded, and I thought students were meant to be constantly poor.
Anyway back to the challenge, she is currently in Morocco having successfully achieved her mountain climb, and is home tomorrow, but before she went there was the kit list to pack. It included a tent and down jacket which needed to be good quality and fit for purpose not just what is on offer in the local store suitable just for music festivals. So out we went for the day and eventually tracked down specialist shops in Belfast, spent a fortune and came home. Job done? Not quite…
Day before she goes I am helping her to pack and the packing list says two ‘wick tees’, “what is a wick tee?” I ask, (I have no idea about mountain climbing or the equipment needed – except it all seems to be expensive). Brooke says she doesn’t know either so it can’t be important so she will manage without!
A bit like a DBA not understanding Oracle instructions about a patch at install and just ignoring it (hang on I have met some like that).
So mum googles ‘wick tees’discovers that they are very important t shirts that are to keep you dry and draw out sweat from the body. So quick rush out to another shop – did I mention we live half an hour each way from a town with shops!
It probably doesn’t sound too bad to you does it? But on the way to South Africa she rang me in a panic and ended up having to buy a new memory card for her camera as she couldn’t find the cable to download the last set of photos. Probably somewhere in that bedroom!
Home tomorrow, horse riding the following week – now what will the challenge be then?
Still you have to love them and I am so proud of her.
Sunday, 29 June 2008
It’s June so it must be Wimbledon.
Early this year UKOUG held an event in conjunction with IBM on upgrading. It was planned that Oracle would kick off the day with Upgrade Best Practices but I was asked if I would do so instead. As I had just returned from Collaborate and this had been a key message I was happy to do so.
The event was held at the Magic Circle in London which is a great venue…. If you like magic which I don’t as I don’t understand it and am therefore not in control, however my boss attended and he loved it.
Warren Daniels from IBM (with the Optim product from one of their acquisitions Princeton Softech ) promised to make up for this in the future and I was really pleased to pick up a message from him last week inviting me to Wimbledon.
Totally out of character the day was sunny, I was in Birmingham on business the day before and travelled by train down to London, this in itself is a novelty for me as I normally fly from Belfast direct to where I need to be; anyway I was very impressed by the speed and service but not the cost.
IBM is the official providers of IT to The All English Tennis & Croquet Club who host Wimbledon, and their corporate facilities were excellent. We partook of all the quintessential things associated with Wimbledon, Champagne, Pimms, Strawberries and Cream as well as a great lunch, but what we were really there for was the Tennis. I had tickets for Centre Court and watch Venus Williams have to work for her first set against the almost unknown Naomi Cavaday from UK, and then Nadal stride to a 3 set victory over Beck. I had hoped to watch Andy Murray but he was only just about to start when I had to leave, the downside of buying a cheap Virgin ticket is set trains.
We also had a tour of the IBM IT facility where statistics and results are processed, provided to the media and on the official website with mind blowing speed. But what really amazed me was that all the statistics are entered manually from specially designed keyboards, backhand, ace, let etc. As the guide said the most technical bit was a sticker on the keyboard telling the operator who was player A and player B. For big matches two people enter and there is always a paper backup. Then IT gets to work and cuts the data any and every way. So next time you see the statistics on the screen remember someone entered all that by hand!
Not a bad way to spend a Tuesday in June, thank you Daniel and did I remember to tell you reader…. I love my job.
The event was held at the Magic Circle in London which is a great venue…. If you like magic which I don’t as I don’t understand it and am therefore not in control, however my boss attended and he loved it.
Warren Daniels from IBM (with the Optim product from one of their acquisitions Princeton Softech ) promised to make up for this in the future and I was really pleased to pick up a message from him last week inviting me to Wimbledon.
Totally out of character the day was sunny, I was in Birmingham on business the day before and travelled by train down to London, this in itself is a novelty for me as I normally fly from Belfast direct to where I need to be; anyway I was very impressed by the speed and service but not the cost.
IBM is the official providers of IT to The All English Tennis & Croquet Club who host Wimbledon, and their corporate facilities were excellent. We partook of all the quintessential things associated with Wimbledon, Champagne, Pimms, Strawberries and Cream as well as a great lunch, but what we were really there for was the Tennis. I had tickets for Centre Court and watch Venus Williams have to work for her first set against the almost unknown Naomi Cavaday from UK, and then Nadal stride to a 3 set victory over Beck. I had hoped to watch Andy Murray but he was only just about to start when I had to leave, the downside of buying a cheap Virgin ticket is set trains.
We also had a tour of the IBM IT facility where statistics and results are processed, provided to the media and on the official website with mind blowing speed. But what really amazed me was that all the statistics are entered manually from specially designed keyboards, backhand, ace, let etc. As the guide said the most technical bit was a sticker on the keyboard telling the operator who was player A and player B. For big matches two people enter and there is always a paper backup. Then IT gets to work and cuts the data any and every way. So next time you see the statistics on the screen remember someone entered all that by hand!
Not a bad way to spend a Tuesday in June, thank you Daniel and did I remember to tell you reader…. I love my job.
Wednesday, 18 June 2008
I don't want the box!
I am not a member of the fanatical green brigade but do not like waste. My current big hate is unnecessary packaging. This week in the US I have had so many boxes that simply exist to help a machine pack them into bigger boxes.
I flew over last Friday and had a box on the aircraft that contained a packet of crisps (chips for those of you reading this in the US), and a small bar of chocolate. Why?
Then at Newark airport I decided to have an ice cream and that was as expected in a wrapper, but wait for it, the wrapped ice cream was in a box.
My hotel gave me a take out breakfast bag, a beautiful, high quality bag, advertising the hotel and inside was… you guessed it, a box, and inside the box was a carton of juice, a lovely wrapped muffin and an apple. So give me a box or a bag but not both.
And then that makes me think about bags. In the UK now supermarkets don’t give out plastic bags free of charge to encourage you to recycle. But clothes stores have more and more fancier bags to advertise themselves. I don’t need them either. As I’m in the US and the dollar is weak I do a lot of shopping, when I pack to leave there is an entire collection of pristine shopping bags left in the hotel.
I flew over last Friday and had a box on the aircraft that contained a packet of crisps (chips for those of you reading this in the US), and a small bar of chocolate. Why?
Then at Newark airport I decided to have an ice cream and that was as expected in a wrapper, but wait for it, the wrapped ice cream was in a box.
My hotel gave me a take out breakfast bag, a beautiful, high quality bag, advertising the hotel and inside was… you guessed it, a box, and inside the box was a carton of juice, a lovely wrapped muffin and an apple. So give me a box or a bag but not both.
And then that makes me think about bags. In the UK now supermarkets don’t give out plastic bags free of charge to encourage you to recycle. But clothes stores have more and more fancier bags to advertise themselves. I don’t need them either. As I’m in the US and the dollar is weak I do a lot of shopping, when I pack to leave there is an entire collection of pristine shopping bags left in the hotel.
Monday, 2 June 2008
Here Goes
The best blogs I have read are the ones where the business thoughts are separate from the personal thoughts and if this works that is what I intend to do.
So having written my first business blog this is the first private one. If nothing else it will embarrass my daughter.
So having written my first business blog this is the first private one. If nothing else it will embarrass my daughter.
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