Now That's Service

About three weeks ago, I placed an order online for some perfume. As a present for my mum's birthday, you understand. This was a whole week before her birthday, thereby allowing - or so I thought - plenty of time for delivery. One week passed. No sign of the perfume. The order tracking page on the website still showed the order as 'Being Processed', whatever the hell that means. My mum's birthday came and went, the order was still 'Being Processed'. A further two weeks passed. Still the order was 'Being Processed'. WTF do these guys have to do to process an order, that takes three frickin' weeks?

In desperation this morning I phoned them. It turns out the perfume I ordered is out of stock, but should be back on their shelves in 'about three weeks', although they couldn't make any promises. Jeez, thanks for frickin' telling me, guys. The guy on the phone offered to cancel the order for a full refund, which I promptly accepted.

So I Google the name of the perfume (well, to be more accurate, I Froogle it). And top of the search results is a stockist, right here in the town where I live. Who knew? At approximately 10:20am I placed the order. When I got home from physio, just before 4:30pm, I checked my email. There's a message from the stockist saying that the stuff is out of stock in the size of bottle I ordered, but they could offer me a different size of bottle. And for the inconvenience, they'd waive the delivery fee, and deliver in person. Wow. I emailed back to say that would be fine. I sent the email at 4:31pm. At 5:20pm they turned up at my door, with the perfume. How's that for service?

The Same, But Different

So my first day back at work went pretty much as I expected. A mix of the familiar and the not-so-familiar. The job itself is the same - the same products, more or less the same development tools. On the other hand, there's a new office full of new people along with a smattering of old faces. It was a bit strange, but I guess after a few days I'll be back in the saddle.

I started at 10am today, which meant I was able to get a later - and considerably less busy - train than I would have otherwise have had to take. Tomorrow, I'm starting at 10 again, but working an hour later to compensate for that. Still, it beats being crammed like a sardine on the early train. I think.

Last Night of Freedom

Can't quite believe I'm going back to work tomorrow. It's been two and a half years since I last did a day's work in the office. Technically, I've never done a day's work in the office, because they've moved since the last time I worked for them.

Anyway, starting at 10am tomorrow, so at least I don't have to get up just at the crack of dawn. Just an hour after the crack of dawn. Incidentally, I used to know a girl called Dawn. But I never.... ah, forget it.

More Hospital Fun

Another trip to see the orthopaedic consultant in Edinburgh today. Once again the x-rays are looking good, and it looks likely that the Ilizarov will be removed sometime mid-October. In the meantime though, I had the final remaining wire removed from my foot, along with the bottom ring of the frame. It hurt a bit at the time (more so than the last one), but what a difference now. For the first time in ages I can climb stairs without any discomfort. Well, in my foot anyway. The pins through my foot were always the most troublesome of the lot, so I'm glad to be rid of them.

I go back in three weeks time, when hopefully they'll confirm the date for removing the rest of the frame.

Back At It

It's official, then. On Saturday morning I received the letter I had been waiting for - the one offering my me job back. There was a gap of over two weeks between the 'interview' and the arrival of the letter, and although I'd been verbally offered the job, the amount of time was starting to concern me. All being well, I start again on Tuesday.

But, oddly, they asked for the names and addresses of two people who could provide references. This is a company I worked with for nearly four years, FFS. Ah well, I guess it's just standard procedure.

It's a gym, Jim

Had one of my twice-weekly sessions of physioterrorism at the hospital this afternoon. For the last couple of weeks, instead of having a fixed appointment time, I've been attending the gym class held each Monday and Thursday afternoon. The advantage being that as soon as I arrive at the hospital, I can go straight through to the gym without any hanging around in the waiting room, thereby minimising the size of the chunk of the day taken up by the whole process.

The other advantage is that being a gym 'class', there are a number of other people present. Get a reasonable number of people present, and statistically there's a chance of there being some eye candy to take my mind off the pain/boredom. Today, the law of averages worked in my favour. Although being a red-faced, sweaty lump probably did not.

Freddie

Just been watching a rerun of the 1992 Freddie Mercury tribute concert on VH1. Today, believe it or not, would have been Freddie's 60th birthday. Another one who went too soon.

It's A Library Thing...

This is possibly a little bit sad, but I couldn't stop myself from checking out the LibraryThing website after reading a write-up in one of the Sunday papers. It basically allows you to catalog your own book collection, write reviews, and compare your collection with those of other users. So far I've added 89 books from my collection, with loads more to go. If you're one of those obsessive types, it's fascinating to see which other users share your taste in books (and to what extent). Er, told you it was sad.

MiPod

Hurrah! Big Al steps smartly into the 20th century with the arrival of his brand-new 60GB video iPod (in black, don't you know). This should make the 40 minute each-way commute to work a little more tolerable. So far I've put over 3000 songs onto it, plus about 100 photos. Oh, and Pulp Fiction. And it's still not even 1/4 full. Quite an impressive bit of gadgetry, really.

Welcome To Pedantics Corner

Actually, that should probably be "Pedants Corner". Or "Pedant's Corner". Or perhaps "Pedants' Corner". Erm, anyway, I noticed that the "All-Day Breakfast" sign in the pub has been amended to read "All-Day Brunch", which is at least slightly closer to the truth.

Isn't it amazing what can be achieved with a bit of whinging over minute details?