Saké To Me

Alex and Fi ordered me 3 bottles of G Saké for my birthday and they arrived today, a day early. I'm really looking forward to these. I was very tempted to buy them for myself when they were on offer on Woot a couple of weeks ago.

I guess like most people I've only ever tried the sake that they serve hot in sushi restaurants. It turns out they do that because it's full of crap and high in alcohol. This one is real premium stuff that's meant to be served cold, so Nikki and I will have a fun night or 12 drinking these. Now we just have to figure out how to make sushi. One's in the regular fridge, two are in the wine fridge. A couple of days to settle from the journey and they'll be ready to drink.

In case you can't see it, the bottles are really quite cool. As well as being a cool shape the label reads:

g
Men can't find it.
Forces can't make it.
Time can never change it.
Genshu Saké - an American masterpiece.
Cask Strength. Hand Crafted 18% Alc by Vol 750 ml
joy

Joy indeed. Thanks guys, much appreciated!

A New Pet Hate

It's been a while, I know. Nikki's been away, which usually leads to lots of blogging from me as I go slowly mad without her, but this trip I've been so busy that I've had no time to fill with my usual nonsense. No plants have died. No house stuff has needed doing. Nothing has aggravated me enough to send me racing in the general direction of my keyboard. (Actually, one thing has, but that blog post is going to be a multimedia extravaganza that I haven't quite figured out how to prepare or present). Fortunately, just as I started to fear that this blog had gone the way of such previously prolific, but now almost dormant, titans of yesteryear as Fi & Alex and Iain & Vikki, along came two e-mails from different sources, with one common theme...The wonderful unmanned mailbox:

_______________________________________
From: bigcorporation@wedontneedyourbusiness.com
To: peon@keepsendingusyourmoney.net
Subject: Demolition
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2007 17:05:33 +0000

Dear Homeowner:
Our records indicate that we are due to demolish your house tomorrow using lasers from outer space. This demolition will commence at 7am. If your house has been scheduled for demolition by mistake please call the House Demolition Hotline at 1-800-555-5201. Office hours are 8am to 5pm.

Sincerely,
Your friends at the space laser company that cares.

Please do not reply to this message via e-mail. This address is automated, unattended, and cannot help with questions or requests.
__________________________________

I have now decided that not having a valid e-mail address that I can reply to is a crime worse than having a call center in Bangalore that I have to spend 45 minutes on hold to only to get through to someone who cannot help me.

When I called AT&T today, (for one of the offending messages was from them) to resolve the same problem I've called them about three times previously, that they have notified me about by e-mail that I could not reply to three times previously, they did exactly what they did the previous three times. The problem is identified in the first two minutes of the phone call. (Well, technically the first 32 minutes of the phone call, but hold time is another blog entry for another day.) The rep then tells me that it's going to be fixed and then I hang on the line, silently, for 20 minutes, listening to a rep going, "OK...Uh-Huh...I'm making the change now...I'm still on the line...our systems are very slow...I'm still here...the update is in...I'm just waiting for the confirmation...".

This is madness for all concerned, surely? If I could have replied to their e-mail saying, "No, check out my file, we've been through this and here's the previous confirmation number" their rep could have fixed it with 2 minutes of work from me and 5 minutes of work from them, at a moment of their choosing. Instead I spend 50 minutes on the phone total, 20 minutes talking to two different AT&T reps and all to fix a problem that did not need to be fixed immediately.

All they would need to do is have someone check a mailbox and route incoming e-mails into the problem resolution system they use when you call. How can the current system be more efficient for them or their customers?

Malaysia

I could do a "Where am I, part II?" post but I think most of you know where I am. I've been travelling around alot, from the US to Labuan. Then a ferry to Brunei. (photo looking back on Labuan from the ferry)


Then a car through Brunei back into Malaysia to get to the town of Miri.


This is where I was doing my offshore training course. Including practising escaping from a helicopter, floating around in a wave machine and jumping off platforms.


Then I went to the island of Labuan, where I was supposed to go offshore, but they cancelled the job.
So then it was back to Singapore, but first I had a stopover in Kuala Lumpur for a night. This was the view from my hotel room.


Now I'm in Singapore for a couple of weeks, to stock up on noodles and choccie biscuits.

Where Am I?

Two clues. Some of you may need more and I will provide more pictures if I work up the courage to go back outside.
















1) I'm surrounded by mountains.
















2) It's flipping freezing.

NEW CLUES:
















3) It hasn't snowed since I got here, but there's loads of it on the ground.
















4) I would have expected more churches.

Right, that's it. I'm going home tomorrow, so if you don't get it by then I'm going to ruin all your fun by telling you the answer.

Final Bonus Clue (no picture - sorry)

5) I knocked off work at 10:45pm, having spent another 5 minutes scraping ice off my car I quickly discovered that absolutely everywhere you could possibly get a bite to eat on a Friday night, including pubs, close by 11pm.

Safety First

It seems that making fun of people who know where you live is a dangerous game. So instead, I present a photo of 3 people I've never met before, shopping in Kroger, at 3 o'clock on Sunday afternoon, in their pajamas.

They did look as if they wouldn't have appreciated being snapped in this state, so the photo was taken from a long way away with a tiny cell phone camera from an angle that made it look like I wasn't taking a photo at all.

These were all sensible precautions, because, as I've mentioned these people were shopping in Kroger, at 3 o'clock on a Sunday afternoon, in their pajamas. It's likely they were in a bad mood and would not want to have posed for a picture.

I assume they had just been rudely awoken from a long, deep sleep by someone stealing all the food and clothes in their house, except for the pajamas they were wearing. Being too hungry to give chase at the time, they headed to Kroger to stock up on supplies before tracking down the heinous criminal.

Good luck ladies.

A Post That Could Save A Life

Nothing to see here, but the threats of impending pain and/or death were starting to mount up.

We've moved to the new Blogger, but it should be invisible to everybody. If anything is not working, let me know and I'll fix it. Or moan about it.

Take On Jen

Think you've got the skills to beat Jen at Rock, Paper, Scissors? Think again, fool. Operating under standard RPS rules, 3 pumps and a reveal, see if you can beat her 2 out of 3...ready?

Pump...

Pump...

Pump...

Jen has Paper. Did you have Scissors? Don't lie, you're only delaying the inevitable anyway. Okay, let's go again.

Pump...

Pump...

Pump...

Jen has Double Rocks. Double Rocks beats Single Rock, Paper and Scissors. What do you mean you never heard of double rocks? You ought to familiarise yourself with the rules before taking on Jen, fool. Okay, last chance, ready?

Pump...

Pump...

Pump...

Jen has Rockets. Rockets beat Double Rocks, Single Rock, Paper and Scissors. Jen wins. Thanks for playing. Better luck next time 

A Night Out - Analyzed

The slow descent of a night on the bevvy, as demonstrated by my brother.

Stage 1 - The discussion - 'Hmm, yes, that is a valid point she is making.'

Stage 2 - The argument - "No, no, no, no, what it is, is..."

Stage 3 - The distraction - "Ooh look a pretty butterfly"


Stage 4 - The madness - "Ugh, butterflies taste horrible" 

Another moral dilemma

So, I went off to a local government office during my lunch hour. When I got there they had a big sign saying "Take a Number", under a display indicating that they were now serving number 978. I grabbed the next number - 035. I sat down to wait and noticed, on the chair to the left of me, number 004. The bloke to the right of me had his number, 032, and when his wife came along I moved left to allow her to sit down, picking up 004 and asking the woman in the next chair to the left if it was hers. It was not. 979, 980, 981 went by in about 15 minutes. I was hungry. I still had 035, I decided to put it in my pocket next to 004 and go to Whataburger for some lunch. I had a delicious double bacon cheeseburger, they didn't make until I ordered it and I ate it fairly slowly, then I went back to the government office, which was even more crowded, and where they were now serving 997. I was now 90 minutes into my lunch hour on a day when there was no other server support in the office. 998 was served, quickly followed by 999. 000 was called, no-one moved. 000 was called again, no-one moved. They moved on to 001, which was the guy sitting next to the woman who said 004 was not hers. 002 was called, no-one moved, 002 was called again. No response. 003 was called, then 5 seconds later, 004. I waited, no-one moved, 004 was called again...

So, what should I have done? What are my obligations to the next 30 people in line who had got there before me and do they outweigh my obligations to the company that pays my salary?

Would it win back any Karma points if I handed 035 off to someone else? Does that make someone else randomly lucky or is it just cheating even more people?

New Year Photos?

Nikki and I decided to have a Hogmanay/House Warming party and invited a bunch of friends and our neighbours. A good time was had by all. There was good food, homebrewed beer, normal beer, loads of wine, spirits, men in kilts, drunk people in hot tubs, drunker people in swimming pools. Oh, how I wish Jen hadn't stolen our camera the day before.

Alex and Fi took photos, but despite the fact they never ever update their blog they wouldn't leave me any photos, in case I posted the good stuff before them. Sometime around the middle of 2008 they will get around to posting their pictures. If you think it looked like fun you can try and rearrange your schedule to be in Houston for New Year 08/09.

Anyway, Happy New Year to one and all. Hope you all have as good a 2007 as we had a 2006.